Is this Australia’s most popular EV charging station?

An electric vehicle charging hub installed in the inner Melbourne suburb of Brunswick less than one year ago has been declared the busiest in Australia, according to EV charging network provider Chargefox.

ChargeFox, which partners with the local Moreland Council to manage the EV stations said this week that the Brunswick EV hub at 13-15 Edward Street was the country’s busiest by number of sessions per month.

The data also shows that the popularity of electric vehicles in Moreland is growing, with usage of Council’s network of public chargers jumping from less than 10 charging sessions a month in 2018 to 725 in total for the month of March, 2021.

Moreland claims the highest number of free-to-use public EV chargers owned and operated by Council of any municipality in the state, with all electricity used to charge cars sourced from the Crowlands Wind Farm near Ararat in central Victoria.

The Council itself has 25 EVs in its fleet, having added the first zero emissions car back in 2013 as part of its zero-emissions vehicle procurement priority.

“I myself drive an electric vehicle,” said Moreland Mayor, Cr Annalivia Carli Hannan. “I love knowing that when I need to charge, there are free, easily accessible places for me to charge up quickly and conveniently across Moreland.

“It’s also a great feeling knowing I’m reducing my carbon emissions and helping the environment,” she said.

“The [Brunswick] hub’s usage data shows there is local uptake and appetite for electric vehicles and EV infrastructure.

“It also shows that having this infrastructure in place can attract people to the area which will help boost our local economy.”

Chargefox has clocked up hundreds of thousands of charging sessions around Australia in total, having passed the 100,000 milestone in July of last year.

Its network stretches from Cairns in Queensland’s north, down the eastern seaboard to Melbourne, and across to Adelaide and to Perth in Western Australia, where the first Chargefox ultra-rapid electric car charging station for that state was opened in November of last year.