Biggest charging stations in Australia – up to 15 bays – to be rolled out in NSW

The New South Wales government has announced the winners of the first round of grants for fast and ultra fast charging stations for electric vehicles, with 86 sites chosen to provide between four and 15 charging bays.

The winning recipients of the $39.4 million in grants include Tesla, the NRMA, Evie Networks, petrol retailers Ampol and BP, and solar farm owner Zeus Renewables.

They include 15-bay charging stations at Marulan, Albury, Coffs Harbour and Raymond Terrace, along the main holiday routes from Sydney to the country, to be built by Tesla. That will be welcome news for EV drivers who are increasingly finding queues at existing charging points which may include one or only two bays.

Until recently, Tesla has been the only company consistently offering four or more bays at each site, but the pressure on charging sites is increasing rapidly along with the jump in EVs on Australian roads.

In total, the 86 sites will provide 500 new fast and ultra-fast charging bays, or an average of nearly six per site. They will be built in the next two years at sites in the city (map above) and regional areas (map below).

Largest and fastest

“This investment will see the largest, fastest and most comprehensive public EV charging network in Australia,” says NSW energy minister and treasurer Matt Kean, who drives a Tesla Model 3.

“Each of these stations will contain a minimum of two ultra-fast EV charging bays of 350kW capacity, and two fast charging bays of 175kW, with some stations containing up to 15 bays.

“The ultra-fast chargers will be able to charge modern EVs from 20 per cent to 80 per cent in around 15 minutes and all stations will be fully powered with renewable energy.”

Kean says the grants will be the first of an expected three funding rounds. The NSW government aims to help roll out 250 sites as part of its guarantee that fast and ultra-fast charging stations are no more than 5km apart in metropolitan areas and 100km apart on major roads and highways.

The second round of co-funding is expected to open towards the end of this year.

See also: Tesla to build four new 15-bay super-charging stations as part of NSW funding deal