Australian EV fast-charging sites set to double in 2024

From pv magazine Australia

A new report by Next System shows that the number of Australian EV fast-charging sites grew by 90% in 2023. It said the network’s total installed capacity grew by 33% in just the last three months.

“Our analysis shows that an additional 50,000 kW of capacity was installed in Q4 2023 alone,” said Next System founder Daniel Bleakley.

The report addresses the idea that EV charging stations can be installed in many more sites than traditional gas service stations, allowing the charging station network the potential to be far more widespread than the current gasoline and diesel fuel distribution system.

The development and rollout of the EV fast-charging network presents an opportunity to view transport very differently from our current refueling system. Sectors such as shopping centers and workplaces need to be aware of the opportunities on offer.

“Lack of public fast charging infrastructure is often quoted to be a major barrier to electric vehicle uptake in Australia,” said Bleakley. “However, our report shows the EV charging network is actually now growing faster than the Australian EV fleet.”

In 2023 there were 397 new charging sites installed, taking the total number of sites in Australia up to 840 sites, with a total installed capacity of 201,695 kW, which was up by 93%. While average charger speed has increased by 52% since 2016, contrary to expectations, there has been an overall decrease in the number of chargers per site.

The report also noted the average pricing varies greatly across the network with a AUD 0.25 ($0.16)/kWh difference between the cheapest and most expensive network operators.

With the rollout of more powerful chargers, newly installed capacity in the fourth quarter of 2023 grew even faster, going up 271% compared to the fourth quarter of 2022. Leading the charger capacity was Tesla, making up 62% of all newly installed chargers with 31.5 MW of new charger capacity.

The network has experienced rapid growth over the past two years. In early 2022 just 10 new EV charging sites were being added to the network each month. By the end of 2023, that figure has increased to 50 per month.

The recent growth in new commissioned sites has been driven largely by Chargefox and Evie, with more than 50% of target market share.