Which car brands offer free charging in Australia?

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It’s certainly a big win for the buyer when car manufacturers include charging costs into the up front price of their vehicles.

While the cost of ownership for electric cars is certainly better than that of a petrol or diesel car, charging costs can easily run into the thousands if you aren’t careful. 

And even though some public EV chargers are free, you won’t always be able to rely on them to get you to and from your destination. 

If you had a 80kWh battery and charged it up from around 25 percent to full, you’d be spending around $0.60 per kWh, or around $1872 per year if charged once per week. 

Let’s have a look at which manufacturers in Australia offer complimentary electric vehicle charging as part of the car’s purchase price. 

Lexus

With every battery electric vehicle purchased, Lexus will include what it calls Encore Platinum benefits program. 

These benefits include not only the installation of a wallbox in your house (installed by energy company JetCharge), but also includes complimentary charging with Chargefox for the first three years of ownership. 

Lexus currently sells the UX300e small electric SUV, but stay tuned as there is more on the way, such as the new Lexus RZ electric SUV. 

Audi 

The German luxury brand offers six years of complimentary public EV charging through Chargefox with each and every E-Tron model purchased in Australia.

Audi Australia currently offers six electric model variants locally, including the E-Tron SUV and RS E-Tron GT four-door sports coupe. 

Mercedes-Benz 

All Mercedes-Benz EQ owners receive a five-year complimentary Chargefox subscription that includes all rapid-DC charging stations across Australia. 

A JetCharge home charger installation is also available, but it will cost you to purchase and then install the unit with the help of an electrician. 

Currently, Mercedes-Benz’s electric models include the EQA small SUV, EQB seven seat SUV, the EQC SUV, the EQE sedan and the EQV people mover just to name a few.

BMW

With every EV purchase, BMW will give you the necessary charging cables and setup needed to run your EV, but will also include up to five years of complimentary public charging with Chargefox, much like Mercedes-Benz. 

BMW’s electric models include the iX SUV, i7 luxury sedan, the i4 Gran Coupe, the iX3 midsize SUV and the iX1 small SUV. 

Nissan 

For Nissan Leaf owners, one year of charging with Chargefox is complimentary, with the two years following priced at a 40 percent discounted rate. 

Nissan currently sells just one electric model in Australia, the Leaf, that has a maximum range of 385km in flagship e+ guise. A base grade is also available. 

The following information is correct at the time of publication on April 17th, 2023.