Ballarat electric vehicle drivers concerned about broken chargers

Reportedly, two charging stations have been damaged in the Ballarat area, one in Ballarat Central in the Big W car park, and the other in Creswick.

A user said the plugs seem to be damaged - at one of the Big W chargers, handwritten notes state "do not use".

Safety mechanisms are in place so EV chargers will simply not work should they be damaged.

In Ballarat, usage of electric vehicles has increased by 72 per cent in 12 months.

In the year ending on January 31, 2022 there were 77 registrations and by the same time in 2023, there were 133.

One user since 2020, Patrick Hockey noticed the damage at both locations, with one at the Big W location being damaged since March 2020.

"Our concerns are that when accidental damage or vandalism occurs the repairs are taking a very long time and in some cases, as in the case of one of the plugs at the charging station in Central Ballarat next to Big W, not happening at all after several years," he said,

"The new charger at Creswick next to the information centre has been damaged after just a few months of operation."

Chargefox, a company which provides the software for the charging stations at the Big W car park, referred enquires on damage to RACV.

Chargefox's head of market Rob Asselman said two plugs at the Curtis Street location had been flagged for damage since mid-July and are waiting for a technician.

"We don't own the chargers themselves," Mr Asselman said.

"Chargefox provides software and monitoring services for organisations that own chargers, and we provide the app for drivers to find, use and pay for charging.

"When a charger has a fault our systems automatically notify the owner of the hardware and instruct them that investigation is required."

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Mr Asselman said said depending on the fault, repairs can cost from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands.

While Chargefox operate the software, the RACV owns the charging stations on Curtis Street, which confirmed the damaged had been flagged.

"Currently two of eight charge ports are offline at this location however a fault has been reported and parts have been ordered for their repair," RACV energy services general manager Greg Edye said.

"We monitor our EV charge sites remotely and can identify when individual chargers are offline or in need of maintenance.

"RACV supports measures and incentives to accelerate the uptake of zero and low emission vehicles that deliver improved affordability and consumer choice."

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