Australia’s EV uptake has taken off in 2024 with over 25,000 EVs being added to the national fleet in the first three months of the year. With this sharp growth in EV uptake, the charging needs across the country are also growing.
New data from carloop shows that EV fast-charging sites across the country have reached a new high with 930 sites now open to drivers.
This is up from 800 sites being live just before Christmas in 2023, indicating an increase of 16% in the total network in the first quarter of this year.
As of April 2024, there are 1,664 individual fast-charging stalls with many newer sites enabling two cars to be charged at the same time.
There is also a trend towards CCS plugs, with many private charge point operators opting for more CCS plugs over CHAdeMO which is used by a lower proportion of EVs.
Over the last six months, some key developments have included the opening of Australia’s largest fast-charging site with 16 charging stalls. That’s the Tesla Albury supercharger site which opened just before Christmas in 2023.
Since September 2023 when the company opened some of its previously restricted fast-charging sites to all EVs, Tesla has opened over 40 of its fast-charging sites to non-Tesla EVs.
Many recently opened or expanded sites have seen it happen fairly quickly. Generally, within the first three days of the site opening, it’s been made available to non-Tesla drivers, albeit at a higher fee.
One of these recent additions in the last week included the Raymond Terrace site in NSW with 12 V4 superchargers with longer charging cables. This site has been co-funded by the NSW government and is now open to non-Tesla drivers as well.
Another innovation in charging sites has been the incorporation of drive-thru charging bays. This was recently seen at a new Tesla supercharger site in Kojonup, WA.
This would help EV drivers towing a caravan, boat or trailer to easily charge without having to go through the trouble of unhitching.
It also further improves the ownership experience and will become a key part of future rollouts.
Speaking of future rollouts, hundreds of EV fast-charging sites with more chargers are being forecasted before the end of 2024, making it an EV charging boom that we will closely follow.
- Recent fast-charging sites added to the network:
- Tesla adding Raymond Terrace & Orange
- Evie Networks adding multiple shopping centre sites
- Jolt adding Red Rooster Camp Hill & Cronulla Station
- NRMA adding Tennant Creek & Katherine, and the Nullarbor Roadhouse.
- RAA adding Port Pirie & Mount Gambier
