Cairns charge point for the Queensland Electric Super Highway. Source: Tritium
The Queensland Electric Super Highway is the longest interstate electric car charging network in the world, making for possibly one of the best electric vehicle road trips the planet has to offer.
Hugging a coastline dotted with world heritage rainforests and reefs and stretching an impressive 1,900km from surf mecca Coolangatta in the south to tropical Cairns in the north, new data has revealed which sites along Queensland Electric Super Highway – or rather, QESH – are the most popular.
The data shows that since the state’s electric car charging network was completed in January 2018, it has been used nearly 3,000 times.
The far northern town of Cairns is the most used electric car charging location on the Queensland Electric Super Highway – or rather, QESH – followed by Coolangatta and Hamilton in Brisbane, according to data released by the QLD Department of Transport and Main Roads.
Over 20% of charging sessions were undertaken in Cairns – 683 at last count, with Coolangatta coming in as the second most used charger in the state with 540 sessions, and two sites in Hamilton used 501 and 256 times respectively.
Built as part of the Palaszczuk government’s strategy for electric vehicles which was introduced in October 2017, there are currently 17 charging sites that make up the QESH.
Most of the sites are powered by Brisbane-based Tritium’s Veefil-RT 50kW DC fast chargers – to put that in perspective, the Hyundai Ioniq with 28kWh battery could recharge to full in less than half an hour.
Powered by renewable energy via green credits and offsets, the Queensland government says it will be investing $2.5 million in addition to previous investments to add another 13 sites in order to reduce the distance between charging stations.
While the locations of these are still being determined, once installed they will be an antidote for those who fear running out of charge when travelling by electric car in Queensland.
“These stations alleviate range anxiety, one of the major barriers for future EV consumers,” said Minister for Transport and Main Roads, Mark Bailey in an emailed statement.
“This will give EV motorists more options to stop, revive and survive.”
Even better for electric road trip tourists – until mid-2019, all chargers can be used for free.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.
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