REGIONAL Victoria is set to receive more electric vehicle charging stations with grants now available to councils, businesses and community organisations to assist with their installation.<\/p>\n
The State Government announced $5 million in funding for around 100 charging stations as part of the Destination Charging Across Victoria Program last month, with 80 per cent of the money to go to regional areas.<\/p>\n
Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D\u2019Ambrosio said expanding the charging station network would help meet the needs of the growing number of electric vehicle drivers on Victorian roads.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will make it easier for electric vehicle drivers to make the trips they need, knowing that there will be a charging station when they need, where they need,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
But Ballarat EV owner and climate change advocate Pat Hockey said the money wasn\u2019t enough to clear up congested charging stations around the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it was $5 million per year it might be for the next few years,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019d need the same amount next year, again and again after that because it\u2019s happening very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll need to be commercial. They\u2019ll need to have the same as a service station only for electricity, or service stations will have to have chargers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Hockey noted the charging station next to Big W just off Curtis Street was particularly crowded.<\/p>\n
\u201cA year ago it virtually wasn\u2019t getting used very much at all but over the course of the last 12 months people are buying electric cars very quickly, so we\u2019ve gone from seeing no other cars there to at times there are four cars there waiting to use the chargers.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of the nature of charging an electric car you typically would park the car and go and do some shopping, so then other people are turning up and there\u2019s cars there without anyone in them and they\u2019ve gone off for an unspecified amount of time to do their shopping.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the newer cars have very large batteries so they can take hours to charge and so quickly [chargers are] getting congested and becoming unworkable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
REGIONAL Victoria is set to receive more electric vehicle charging stations with grants now available to councils, businesses and community organisations to assist with their installation. The State Government announced $5 million in funding for around 100 charging stations as part of the Destination Charging Across Victoria Program last month, with 80 per cent of […]<\/p>\n