Chargefox teams up with Powershop to drive shift to cheaper, cleaner EVs

Electric vehicle drivers who use the Chargefox network to recharge their cars are being offered a $100 discount on their energy bill if they switch to Powershop for their home electricity supply.

In an announcement on Tuesday, the two companies said the deal was about supporting the shift to increased electric vehicle adoption, and the increased use of renewable energy to power that shift.

The partnership marks just the latest effort by an Australian energy retailer to help develop what promises to be a major new source of energy demand, in a market that has most recently been on the decline with millions of households now generating their own rooftop solar energy.

Just last month, Powershop announced the expansion of its cut-rate electric vehicle charging offer from Queensland into New South Wales and Victoria.

The off-peak tariff encourages customers to charge their EVs overnight between the hours of 12am and 4am on weekdays.

As Bridie Schmidt reported here, this offers rates as low as 9.9 per kWh (less than half of its normal off-peak rate of 21.18 cents) in Queensland, and around 50 per cent cheaper than normal off peak rates in Victoria and New South Wales, depending on the network provider.

At around the same time, AGL Energy resurrected and upgraded its own EV electricity plan, offering $240 worth of credits towards bills to customers who own at least one electric car.

And fellow big three retailer Origin Energy just weeks earlier announced it had cut a deal with Hyundai to offer savings to owners of Kona and Ioniq electric vehicles.

For Chargefox, the Powershop deal follows a major boost to its Australia-wide ultra-rapid charging network, with another 22 sites added to Queensland’s existing 17 site network and a goal to extend the network to 100 sites in total.

As reported here, each site in the Chargefox network will consist of a minimum of two bays offering 350kW Tritium and ABB ultra-rapid chargers that can recharge a vehicle with up to 400km range within 15 minutes (this is of course dependent on  maximum charge rate of any particular EV).

Certain sites will also offer 50kW charging units that can add 60km of driving range in 15 minutes. And all Chargefox ultra-rapid stations are powered by 100% renewable energy, including solar panels and battery storage.

“Our partnership with Powershop gives our customers the opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint even more whilst reducing their energy bills,” said Chargefox CEO Marty Andrews in comments this week.

And ensuring EVs are cheaper to run than petrol cars helps bring Australia closer to increased EV adoption, he added.

Interim Powershop Australia CEO Catherine Anderson said the partnership coupled with Powershop’s new off-peak tariff would allow its customers to cost-effectively charge their electric vehicles anywhere, at home or on the road.

“This partnership with Chargefox is another step in the journey to helping change the way Australians think about EVs. We want customers to be encouraged to charge up, instead of fill up.

“Our research found that three of the top five reasons people would consider buying an electric or hybrid vehicle were financial: the price of fuel, the cost to run and the cost to maintain.

“We want to give our customers a more cost-effective option to charge their EV and be a driving force for EV uptake to help create a better energy future that Australians need and deserve,” Anderson added.

“We believe in supporting sustainable options to safeguard the planet for future generations – from our parent company’s 100% renewable electricity generation, to completely carbon offsetting our customers energy use at no extra cost to them.”