Petrol giant Ampol has again blamed grid connection delays for its failure to deliver its promised 300 fast-charging bays by the end of 2024, as it warns of growing complexities and a slowdown in the uptake of EVs – partly due to charging concerns.
Ampol has aimed to deliver a cumulative total of more 300 AmpCharge EV charging bays at more than 100 Australian sites by the end of 2024, but says the pace of the rollout was constrained mainly due to complexities around grid connection.
As of December 31, it had delivered 144 charging bays live across 59 sites in Australia, and says there are approximately 85 bays across Australia and New Zealand that are either under construction or awaiting grid connection.
“We have a pipeline of (EV charging) bays either awaiting grid connection or under construction in Australia and New Zealand,” CEO Matt Halliday said in a call with analysts after the release of the company’s annual results on Monday.
“This provides a window into some of the challenges in delivering the enabling infrastructure to support the transition, and in turn, plays into customer confidence to convert to EVs.”
Ampol did not go into further details about the locations of the held up charging stations, or the reasons. But it has become a common problem, largely due to network capacity that has forced some EV charging owners to consider batteries to improve  capacity. Many EV chargers fall short of the rated output because of the problem.
Ampol says, however, that it remains committed to the rollout of its EV charging network, and has relied on property companies  such as Mirvac, Stockland and ISPT to provide a strong pipeline of sites to deliver in 2025 and beyond.
Halliday also pointed to the flatlining in the growth of EV sales in Australia, and in New Zealand, which had been a stronger market on a per capita basis, but has slumped after the new conservative government ripped up various policy support measures.
“The signs are becoming clearer that the energy transition will be very challenging and costly,” Halliday says.
“EV uptake in Australia has been flat, and in New Zealand it’s taken a step back as policy support was unwound, EVS remain a very small proportion of the total fleet, and the roll out of charging infrastructure has also been slow, highlighting the constraints in the system, including around grid connectivity.”
He said, however, that the statistics on charging use are encouraging both in charge time and duration, which offers Ampol the opportunity to tap into driver demand for snacks, drinks and other items..
“You can see that dwell time is circa 25 to 30 minutes, even for fast chargers,” he said. “The energy supplied has increased more than three fold since last year, and we continue to work on the convenience offering to benefit from the opportunity this presents.
“Once we hit our initial (EV charging) targets, we will continue to monitor EV uptake trends to ensure we are getting the pace for investment right,” Halliday said.
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.