EV fast-charging sites nearly doubled across Australia in 2023

The number of fast and ultra-fast charging stalls around Australia has nearly doubled in 2023, according to the federal government – with more than 800 fast charging sites and 2,000 stalls servicing the more than 130,000 EVs on the road.

“There’s been a 70 percent increase in EV charging locations this year alone – helping address the needs of Aussie drivers in regional and suburban communities and reducing wait times for tens of thousands of new EV drivers,” federal energy minister Chris Bowen said in a statement.

Bowen, who drives a Tesla Model 3, says that the National EV Strategy will result in another 1,000 fast charging locations coming online in the next 12-36 months.

“The Albanese Government is improving access for Australians to drive cleaner, cheaper-to-run cars, while helping households and businesses save thousands,” he said.

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The NRMA is rolling out more than 100 fast charging stations as part of a strategy to ensure that there is a fast-charger every 150kms, including in remote areas.

Tesla says it has expanded the  number of Supercharger stalls by 65 per cent in 2023 to more than 450 Australia, and Evie Networks says it has more than doubled the number of its sites to 201 in the past 12 months.

Bowen says the uptake of EVs is accelerating, helped in part by federal tax incentives which offer a saving of $11,000 a year on a $50,000 EV, and makes a base model Tesla Model 3 is cheaper to lease per month than a petrol vehicle like a Mazda 3 Astina.

“More and more households and businesses are saving thousands of dollars on the upfront and running costs of their vehicles – with our EV discount making leasing EV’s and plug-in hybrids cheaper than leasing petrol vehicles in many circumstances,” he said.

The federal government says that these discounts and benefits have helped quadrupled EV sales from 2% in May 2022 to 8.3% in the first three quarters of 2023.

According to the latest statistics released by DCCEEW, there are now 173,000 EVs on Australian roads with two-thirds making it onto the road in the last 18 months.

The number of fast-charging sites rose gradually and by December 2021, there were 317 fast-charging locations around Australia. This rose to 464 by December 2022 and even more sharply in 2023 with around 800 active fast-charging sites found nationwide.

This growth has been on the back of investment by state, territory and commonwealth governments in recent years, along with private companies contributing to the national rollout.