Are our regional roads ready for electric vehicles?

Posted 12 February, 2020 Samuel Smith

In 2020, you’ll find electric vehicles happily humming around the streets of most cities – Adelaide included. With plenty of charge on hand, urban EVs live cruisy lives. Out of town though, it’s a different story.   Aussies love to drive. In fact, according to ABS statistics, we have the 4th highest number of cars per capita in the world. But there’s a change in the air and, potentially, the tank. While national vehicle sales are declining, a recent report by the Electric Vehicle Council of Australia showed a 90% increase in electric vehicle sales during the first half of 2019, compared to the same period in 2018.   Of all states, SA had the highest percentage of new electric vehicle sales, with a ratio of 21 EVs purchased for every 10,000 new cars. If growth continues at this rate, Infrastructure Australia predicts Australian EV sales will account for 70% of new vehicle sales by 2040. The question is, are our roads ready for an electric influx?  

Pushing to increase infrastructure

Adelaide has more than 40 electric vehicle charging stations, but outside the city, finding somewhere to recharge isn’t an easy task. Some towns in regional SA are impossible to reach in an EV. “If we’re talking intra-city travel, range is probably not a huge problem,” RAA mobility expert Mark Borlace says.   “The issue, however, comes with regional driving. Some SA towns are hundreds of kilometres apart, and currently the state has approximately 80 public charging stations.” RAA has lobbied the government to adopt a broader rollout of electric vehicle chargers in regional SA, to encourage tourism and provide flexibility for EV users. RAA – along with other states’ mobility clubs – support the development of EV charging infrastructure through our investment in the Australian Motoring Services (AMS) who are Chargefox stakeholders.  

Introducing Chargefox

In September last year, Australian public electric vehicle charging network Chargefox announced a plan to install more than 100 ultra-rapid charging stations across the country.   The first SA site at Keith BP is in the final stages of construction. A second charger will be developed in Murray Bridge. Chargefox’s 350kW chargers can deliver a whopping 450km of range to some cars in 20 minutes. Regular chargers can take more than 8 hours to deliver the same range.

How far could you get today?

Using EV charging station locator Plugshare, we investigated how 2 different EVs would handle a range of popular SA road trips, starting at RAA HQ in Adelaide’s Mile End. Our test vehicles were a 2019 Nissan Leaf with a 170km range (priced around $49,990) and a 2018 Tesla Model S 90D with a 400km range (priced around $120,000).