What’s needed to make EVs more popular in Australia?

The road to making electric cars more popular is a three-lane highway at the moment.

In the fast lane are the car-makers themselves, driving the development and availability of EVs forward at a rapid rate.

But they’re also being dragged along in the slipstream of government regulations that are dictating the speed at which EVs need to become commercially viable in order for those car-makers to stay in business.

However, it’s what’s happening in the slow lane – the infrastructure required to support the widespread adoption of battery-powered cars – that will ultimately have as much influence on the flow of traffic towards an electrified future.

So, what does that look like, what more is needed and where is the road network – literally – headed?

Let’s look at the actual roads first because there are a lot of questions about whether we need to change what we drive on before we change what we actually drive.

In the short term, the existing road network does not need to be altered in any way to specifically suit electric vehicles; they drive just like any other car.

But, in the long term, there are some ideas that could radically change it all, such as inductive wireless charging that allows vehicles to replenish the battery while driving.

How this works is via the fitment of a copper loop underneath the road surface and a receiver mounted on the car that, much like a wireless phone charger, allows for the transfer of electricity to the battery without the vehicle needing to be directly plugged into the power source.

Israeli tech company ElectReon showcased the concept earlier this year when a fully-electric long-haul truck drove over the 1.65km test road in Gotland, Sweden, at various speeds with an average transfer rate of 70kW. The road also worked with the same results when covered by snow and ice, ensuring it would be consistent in any weather condition.

“Charging a long-haul truck while driving on an electric road that is open to the public is an exceptional technological achievement coming after years of intense development,” said Oren Ezer, CEO of ElectReon Wireless.

“The achievement brings us closer to our goal of revolutionising the field of electric vehicle charging.”

The idea of an electrified road network opens the possibility for convenient long-haul travel in electric vehicles. Currently, EVs have limited driving range and it can take up to one hour to recharge the battery.

The entire road network doesn’t need to be electrified – like a rail or tram network – for it to work properly.

But if sections of major interstate highways and outer-urban freeways were fitted with inductive charging that allowed drivers to ‘refuel’ without stopping, it would virtually eliminate range anxiety from the conversation around electric cars, not to mention the inconvenience of long periods needed to recharge.

The thing about electric cars is that you can recharge them anywhere there is a household power point. But the problem with that is it’s an extremely slow process, especially compared to refuelling a conventional car which takes just a few minutes.

Because we’ve done it that way for more than a century there is a massive network of petrol stations – approximately 6500 in Australia alone – to make it quick and easy.

According to a report last year from the Electric Vehicle Council of Australia, there is only 1950 standard charging stations (of less than 50kW) at over 1200 locations and 357 fast and ultra-fast charging stations (50kW and over) at 157 locations around Australia.

While that is a growth rate of 40 per cent compared to the previous 12 months, it still only provides coverage for a relatively small portion of the 823,000km of Australian roads.

The EV Council report claimed that 52 per cent of respondents cited that access to charging equipment is discouraging them from purchasing an electric vehicle, that 82 per cent said access to fast charging was important or very important and more than two-thirds said the provision of electric vehicle charging should be a priority in government policies in order to encourage EV adoption.

The federal Department of Infrastructure included a National Electric Vehicle Fast Charging Network as a high priority initiative in its 2020 report, stating that “complementary investment in network infrastructure may be required to ensure that the electricity generation and distribution network can provide reliable electricity supply for additional electric vehicle chargers”.

The EV Council report claimed that 86 per cent of respondents said home charging was important, while more than half said that workplace charging was equally as critical, especially considering that more than two-thirds of Australians commute to work.

These are the two locations where EVs usually remain parked for the longest periods of time, so it would naturally be more attractive to have access to recharging infrastructure in order to make electric cars a viable option.

The EV Council recommends that it is “necessary for governments to help facilitate home and workplace charging” .

“Mandating new buildings be ‘EV ready’ will reduce the need for retrofitting in multi-residential and commercial buildings,” said the council.

“Subsidising home and workplace charging would also be an effective action for government to take to remove some of the cost barriers to purchasing an electric vehicle and charger.”

It also claims that workplaces which offer free – or subsidised – EV charging may become an important employee benefit as well as a way to support company sustainability goals.

As you can see, there’s a lot more than just the choice of which EV to consider for Australia to adopt battery-powered vehicles in greater numbers.

And all three lanes need to move at the same speed to make it happen and ensure consumers don’t get lost.