Ballarat council set to increase electric vehicle chargers by two-thirds

At last week's council meeting, during public question time, City of Ballarat director infrastructure and environment Bridget Wetherall said the city was aiming to install eight EV stations by 2023 in line with their creation of an EV policy.

"In 2023, an EV policy will be developed to determine where community charging stations would best be placed around the municipality and how to respond to requests for charging stations on public land and charging mechanisms," Ms Wetherall said.

"A total of eight EV charging stations will be installed in 2023. These include six seven kilowatt AC chargers at the Central Square car park and two 22 kilowatt AC chargers at the council depo."

At present, there are 12 charging stations in Ballarat including three which are either CHAdeMO, CCS/SAE Combo or Tesla Superchargers located at Stockland Shopping Centre in Wendouree, at the Big W car park off Curtis Street and at Shell Coles Express fuel station in Warrenheip.

In addition, Ms Wetherall said the council was working towards transitioning its fleet of staff vehicles to more sustainable options.

"Two new EVs are being procured to replace two existing pool cars. The new EVs are MG ZS powered by a 50 kilowatt battery with a driving range of over 300 kilometres," she said.

Neighbouring Hepburn Shire Council has three EVs in their contingent including two hybrid vehicles.

Moorabool Shire Council, while they do have 12 hybrid vehicles, they do not currently have any EVs. However, they have ordered three to be used across their Darley and Ballan offices as pool cars which are set to arrive in early July.

Golden Plains Shire Council are yet to transition to zero emission transport methods.

Ballarat's Stuart Benjamin, who began driving EVs in 2016, said while he would've liked to have seen such an initiative from the council earlier, he was nonetheless pleased with such an announcement.

"It's fantastic that (the) council are looking to invest in public chargers," Mr Benjamin said.

"Public chargers are really important for the 10 per cent of locals who don't have off street parking at home, or for tourists, as they're coming to our region and need to be able to charge while they're enjoying our facilities before they return home."

However, he said he was "disappointed" with the council's plan to only introduce two new EV vehicles into their workforce.

"They've chosen to go with a particular model, which just happens to be the cheapest and one of the smallest range vehicles and I really don't think it shows great leadership to be only putting your toe in the water," Mr Benjamin said.

"Council doesn't want to take a risk and council should reevaluate that policy. There is absolutely no reason why they couldn't be looking to swap over all of their fleet vehicles."

He said such a conservative approach by the council also conveyed the wrong message to the community, particularly regarding the city's ambition to meet net zero emissions by 2030.

"A Tesla Model 3 now is cheaper than running a Toyota Camry. So why wouldn't we just bite the bullet and say we're going to lead the community and lead the region and jump into the future. It's a real opportunity for the city," Mr Benjamin said.

While a Recharging Ballarat report found Ballarat lagged behind the Australian average of EV ownership, with 0.04 per cent of Ballarat's local fleet electric compared to 0.07 per cent nationally, he said barriers into the EV market were becoming less prevalent.

"The thing that stops most people from buying an EV is range anxiety but that really has started to disappear now that you've got a pretty good charging network along the Western Highway for example of fast chargers," Mr Benjamin said.

This month the government installed three 22 kilowatt chargers which are capable of charging six EVs simultaneously at the Midlands Golf and Bowls Club in Invermay.

These points form part of the 25 government funded EV charging stations already installed across Victoria including one 350 kilowatt ultra-rapid charger and three 50 kilowatt fast chargers in Ballarat Central.

"The Victorian Government is delivering more than 140 fast-charging stations across the state to ensure EV drivers in Victoria will be, at most, one hour away from an EV charger," a Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action spokesperson said.

"The Destination Charging Across Victoria program will see EV charging stations installed at key tourist destinations and high-use locations - including in the Ballarat region."

IN THE NEWS:

The government has invested $100 million through the Zero Emissions Vehicle Roadmap package to provide subsidies to help more people buy a zero emission car.

It is hoped by 2030 half of all light vehicle sales in Victoria will be zero emissions vehicles.

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