Fuel retailing giant Ampol says delays in getting grid connections continues to hold up the rollout of its electric vehicle fast charging network, and it won’t reach its targeted 300 charging bays until 2025.
The company had flagged the issue in last year’s annual report, when it fell well short of its target of 180 EV charging bays by the end of 2023. And, just a few weeks after landing a new funding deal from the federal government through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), it appears the problem has not been resolved.
“The progress of the EV fast charging network development is slower than we expected, given the difficulties in connecting to the grid in Australia in particular,” Ampol CEO Matt Halliday told investors on a conference call to discuss its interim results for the 2024 calendar year.
“We have a pipeline of approximately 100 bays that are either awaiting grid connection, or under construction,” he said. “This provides some window into the challenges of delivering the enabling infrastructure to support the transition.”
Ampol is not the only company rolling out EV fast charging networks that has complained about grid connections – with some ultra fast charging equipment limited to the amount of capacity that can provide, and others such as NRMA installing integrated battery systems to take the load off the grid.
Halliday noted that EVs still represent just 0.9 per cent of the passenger car fleet in Australis – just over two per cent in New Zealand, and that the sales growth has moderated, which could affect the speed with which it transforms its retail outlets.
The graph above shows the growth in numbers of EVs per fast-charging bays in Australia – now at 148 EVs for every fast charger. Ampol added just 34 bays across Australia and New Zealand in the first half of 2024.
Still, the longer stays for EV charging, which its data suggests averages around 31 minutes, opens up new opportunities for its convenience stores, which have traditionally been dependent on tobacco sales. Halliday says that tobacco share is now down to 25 per cent of total sales, and low margin, thanks to the growth of illegal re-sellers.
Halliday says the uptake for its fast charging bays is around 98 to 99 per cent, but alluded to some unspecified issues with certain chargers and geographies.
In terms of utilitization, Ampol reported a number of 7 per cent across its network. “It’s actually well above what we expected to see at the moment,” Halliday said.
“I think we take some encouragement from that. I think some of the international modeling and experience shows that there’s a 10% return on the electrons at a 10% rate of utilization, and then up to 15% when you take account the convenience retail benefits, where the EV customer looks to be spending more like 30% more, if you like, on average.
“That is sort of consistent with what we’re seeing. So we think that’s an interesting opportunity. Obviously, there still aren’t many vehicles in the in the country, less than 1% of the fleet, but at 7% the you know that’s that’s above what we would have, what we would have anticipated to see at this stage.”
Giles Parkinson is founder and editor of The Driven, and also edits and founded the Renew Economy and One Step Off The Grid web sites. He has been a journalist for nearly 40 years, is a former business and deputy editor of the Australian Financial Review, and owns a Tesla Model 3.
Install the chargers ahead of the grid upgrade and just limit the speed of charging. A 25kW charger is better than non at all.
And consider adding some local solar and battery support, both of which will continue to be of use even with bigger grid connections later. The other thing is to adopt long term planning processes that get on with planning and gaining permits to keep a steady stream of work entering the pipeline/s.
Ampol could have done better by utilization the roof space for solar and using chargers that have integrated battery systems. Cost more money but quicker ROI. Instead, this organization that is making very large profits does a token job of adding a few DC chargers on the edge of its stations to appease the public that it is a responsible company.
Have you ever seen a service station roof covered in panels ? I’m not sure I have. Often flat roofs in open space. Great resource potential for running the station or EV’s.
Not only do they get the green glow on a dirty business, they have been given lots of our dollars to roll out their charging network. So it’s not a huge investment for Ampol and they’re in no hurry and benefit more in looking green.
Actually BP have been using roof space for solar for a few years – presumably to offset there station power consumption.
Yes I have, BP in Windsor in Brisbane in the mid 90s. It was a marvellous site back then.
This sounds good, as a seasoned EV owner. But I suspect there would be issues with new EV owners (or, for example, those hiring an EV) who are wondering why anyone would use this “fast” charger which it’s going to take 2 hours.
Sure, you can put signs on it, but don’t underestimate people’s ability to complain loudly without reading. I regularly see comments on Plugshare from people who charge at a site with a time component of the billing and get angry about the “expensive parking cost”.
Interesting. It could be massive delays. However, given the small number of charging sessions per day, average charge size (kWh) per charging site & bay, and duration. They might be very well suited to using a BESS as a bypass.
I do very long drives, minimum 200 km per charge, and a few 1000 km runs. In my travels (NZ), hardly anyone stays with their vehicles when they are charging, leaving a queue of “us” waiting for a spot. Their cars might even be at 80% charge or higher, dropping from “fast” to snail charge rates, and still the cars are stopping others trying to charge. If AMPOL is going to get people to go into their shops and hold up the next customer, it needs to do a serious think about how to address this.
That’s really bad that they do that. Perhaps the chargers don’t incur idle fees or the drivers just want to charge to 100%. If you have a Tesla then at least you can use Tesla only chargers if not, stick to the faster chargers even if it costs more as its your time that is getting under utilized (wasted).
Ampol. Rather than putting in 1 CCS2 charger and 1 CHMOD charger (that no car uses – check your utilisation of them), how about installing 10 chargers at a single location.
Also, don’t treat EV drivers as second class citizens by having no protection from the elements. I’m sick of paying a premium (as you’re the most expensive) to get drenched whilst plugging the car in and getting the charging started.
Another infrastructure project falling behind schedule. Come on Australia, get your act together! As a nation, we are very bad at meeting our goals. Warnings are already appearing, that Australia is in danger of missing our 2030 emission reduction target, and that is not a particularly ambitious one.
You’d better hope there’s not a change of government.
The transition would go into reverse.
You could, I guess, change your nuclear powered car at your local small nuclear power plant.
This certainly applies to my local Ampol
Distribution board and charger base installed.
A year later still no charger, said to be due to difficulty with the DNSP
Expecting a seller of fossil fuels to supply energy to their natural enemy is an absurd concept. Worthy of a Monty python sketch.
If you can buy tobacco at a petrol station, why can’t you buy petrol at a tobacco station? Seems unfair to me.
If ampol really wants to maximise the customer experience they should simply apply for a licence to sell guns and liquor.
Perhaps theDriven could investigate what these holdups getting connected really are? Some commentary are using this as a ” the grid can’t cope” argument, but it’s probably not remotely the cause. What needs to be done to streamling the rollout?
Political will.