Victoria to add 100 destination EV chargers with $5 million state funding

The Victoria Labor government has announced an expansion of its funding for electric vehicle chargers, adding $5 million for 100 more charging stations across the state.

In a statement released on Thursday, energy minister Lily D’Ambrosio said that 80% of the funding would go towards regional sites to make travelling outside the city more accessible.

Shopping centres, restaurants, hotels and other tourist destinations would be the focus of the new rollout, which would complement the RACV fast charger network with further options for EV drivers, ranging from half-hour top-ups to longer stays to recharge the battery over a few hours.

The program, dubbed Destination Charging Across Victoria (DCAV), will see EV charging units ranging from 11kW up to 100kW installed at high use locations and will be handed out in a series of grants for businesses, councils and community organisations in “priority” towns and metropolitan areas, with applications to close by Friday 23 July 2021.

The funding is on top of a previous $644,000 for chargers in the Loddon Mallee region and $3 million which was put towards the installation of ultra-fast chargers in Euroa, Moe, Torquay, Ballarat and Horsham as part of the Chargefox network.

“The transport sector is a significant contributor to our emissions, and our investments are making electric cars a vehicle for change,” said Victorian public transport Ben Carroll in a statement.

“This will make it easier for electric vehicle drivers to make the trips they need, knowing that there will be a charging station when they need, where they need,” said minister for energy, environment and climate change Lily D’Ambrosio.

However, the funding is significantly less than the $20 million in grants for destination chargers, $20 million for public transport charging hubs and $131 million for more fast chargers announced on Sunday by the NSW government, feeding the flame that Victoria is taking a “go slow” approach to the transition to clean transport despite the fact its transport-related carbon emissions account for 25% of the state’s total.

The announcement comes weeks after the state was roundly criticised for voting in the first punitive tax for EVs in the world, which will see it make EV owners submit odometer readings and then pay 2.5 cents per kilometre (2 cents for plug-in hybrids) for every kilometre driven.

To temper the road user tax, which it is argued will help replace declining federal fuel excise although that tax is actually put in a general revenue bucket, Victoria is also giving the first 20,000 drivers to buy a new EV a $3,000 rebate.

However its approach – which will see the road user tax come into effect on July 1, 2021 – is in stark contrast to NSW which is also introducing a $3,000 EV purchase rebate and a road user tax, but is deferring the latter until 2027.