vehicles – Michmutters
Categories
Business

South Australians inch closer to the EV road trip as charging network improves

For regional motorists in South Australia, options are few and far between when it comes to the rapid charging of electric vehicles (EVs).

For some people, like Katherine Tuft from Roxby Downs, the EV infrastructure turned what would be a seven-hour drive to Adelaide into 10 hours.

“It’s quite doable but it’s not the most efficient way to get around as far out as we are, but that’s nothing to do with the car and all to do with the inadequacy of the charging network,” she said.

EVs can be charged from just about any power outlet, but Ms Tuft said it wasn’t about the number of charge points but the speed capability of the chargers.

“We’ll get to Port Augusta on about 30 per cent battery after having left at 100 per cent,” she said.

“There’s nowhere fast to charge, which is why we’ll sit on them for an hour or so and get another 10 or 15 per cent and that’s enough to get us to Clare, where there is a fast charger.

“We can then zip up to 80 per cent within half an hour and get to Adelaide.”

Janie Butterworth has had a rapid charging station outside her Port Lincoln business for five years.

As a destination point on the tip of the Eyre Peninsula, she has observed another issue of a patchy regional charging network.

“Hardly anybody uses it, people probably don’t come out this far if they’ve got an electric vehicle because it’s logistically impossible,” Ms Butterworth said.

“If you’re going to drive it somewhere that’s too far from your house, you’re going to get stuck charging it somewhere for a long time.”

Regional network update

To address range anxiety and charge time delays, in February a $12.4 million state government grant was awarded to the Royal Automobile Association (RAA) to construct a 140-site fast and rapid charging network across South Australia.

.