There’s an assumption that just quietly gets embedded in how most people think about EV charging in Perth, that the public network is going to just grow fast enough to meet whatever demand comes along. And that’s a pretty comfortable assumption, but deep down we all know it’s probably way off the mark. The WA Government has just found out that there are going to be 250,000 electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles on the roads by 2030. That’s not a gradual increase. That’s a whole new transport landscape that’s going to arrive way faster than most of our infrastructure plans were ever designed to handle.
What Perth’s Public Charging Network Actually Covers (Or Doesn’t)?
Western Australia’s public fast charging network has started to cover a lot of ground in metropolitan Perth and even connects up some major regional routes. But it’s not all smooth sailing; get out to the outer suburbs where most of the city’s new residential growth is happening and you’ll find a whole lot fewer fast charging options per vehicle than you would in the inner suburbs and major activity centres. And to make matters worse, unreliability compounds this issue. A bunch of independent WA network assessments have found that there are persistent uptime problems: basically, ev chargers perth that stop working because they get smashed, or because there’s a problem with the communication between the vehicle and the charge point operator, or just because the old hardware is getting on in years and has given up the ghost. And that’s not to mention all the other issues. So even when there is a charger available it’s not like it’s actually working all the time.
The Math Behind 250,000 Vehicles
In most established EV markets, about 80% of charging is done at home or at work, with public infrastructure just topping up the remainder and dealing with the really long journeys or the situations where you haven’t got any private charging. But in Perth, the public network was just built for that sort of thing, and that’s the problem. Because even though there’s no shortage of people buying EVs here, there just isn’t any adequate home or workplace charging across the metropolitan area. So the public chargers are getting clogged up dealing with a demand they were never built to handle, which is a big problem. It causes congestion at the popular sites and the poor EV owners have to go to a whole lot of hassle to keep their vehicle charged, and that just kinda defeats the whole point of owning an EV in the first place.
Workplace Charging, Something Perth Has So Far Failed to Get On Top Of
Most people in Perth get to work by car. And most offices have no EV charging available, which is not great for the EV owners who don’t have a home charger. What happens to the poor guy with an EV who lives in an apartment and the building management won’t let him get a charger installed? That’s basically what we’re talking about here, a whole heap of people with no realistic options for keeping their vehicle charged across the working week. And the solution to this isn’t exactly rocket science; it’s workplace charging. A vehicle that is connected up while the owner is at work comes home with a lot more charge in the battery, which in turn reduces the load on the domestic charging and the public network during the peak periods. The DRIVEN program offers grants for eligible business and community sites that want to install charging, including workplaces. So employers who do their homework can get some of the costs knocked off the installation bill of a charging station, and it’s not a bad thing to be able to tell your employees that you’ve got charging available on site. It’s starting to become a factor in job recruitment discussions in the professional and government sectors.
The Case for Home Charging in Perth’s Suburban Geography
Perth’s sprawling suburbia of detached houses is an ideal location for home charging stations. A single dwelling that has a garage or carport will provide enough room to install a wall-mounted AC charger without any hassle. Overnight charging using the off-peak rates from Synergy ensures minimal running costs and avoids having to find and queue at a public charging station each day. Houses with solar power on the roof offer another edge; an intelligently programmed charger will be able to make use of solar generated during the day to charge the vehicle on electricity produced by the household. Unprepared for home charging are apartments that do not have body corporate approved installation options, homes that need a switchboard upgrade due to old age and properties where the tenant does not have approval from the landlord to make alterations.
What Commercial Sites Need to Take Into Account Prior to Any Requirement Being Established?
The 2022 National Construction Code included requirements for EV readiness for some new construction categories. The draft 2025 NCC amendments will introduce new requirements for commercial and residential properties. Building owners that install ready-to-use conduits, wiring and reserved circuit capacity for chargers without actually installing them now save themselves a costly job of retrofitting when tenants start demanding charging as part of their lease conditions. Considering Perth’s growing EV trend, this demand is far from being an improbable scenario.
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