Charging station powers up at RACV Torquay Resort

ELECTRIC vehicles can now make a useful pitstop at the start of the Great Ocean Road with last week’s official opening of an ultra-rapid charging station at the RACV Torquay Resort.

The Chargefox station (which has been at the resort for a couple of weeks) has two 175kW ABB chargers, which can combine to provide 350kW to one vehicle, as well as two 50kW DC Tritium Veefil-RT fast chargers, which can deliver 60km of charge every 15 minutes.

The chargers are equipped with both CHAdeMO and CCS2 plug types, making them suitable for almost all existing electric vehicles, including Tesla when used with an adapter.

The Torquay station is Chargefox’s fourth in Victoria and fifth overall. The others are in Eurora, Airport West, Barnawartha North and Brisbane.

Victorian Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio, Chargefox chief executive officer Marty Andrews and RCV home and energy division executive general manager Nicole Brasz opened the charging station on Wednesday.

“Chargefox have grown over the past couple of years to become the largest EV network in the country, and these stations form the backbone of that network, helping address range anxiety and making EV drivers in the future feel comfortable about travel across the country,” Mr Andrews said.

Ms D’Ambrosio said the state government was excited to see the details of Chargefox’s plans for a network of stations.

“It wasn’t just about being ready for electric vehicles, and we know of course that there’s anticipating of a significant uptake of electric vehicles over the next five years in Australia, and one of the barriers is nervousness about range anxiety.

“It’s really about thinking ahead.”

Chargefox says it has 17 ultra-rapid charging stations in development, with its network to eventually connect Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide, as well as having extra stations in Western Australia and Tasmania.