Ampol has plugged in its first electric vehicle charging station in Australia, a site in the inner south-eastern Sydney suburb of Alexandria.
It’s the first of 120 new sites that will be installed at Ampol petrol stations across the country, a roll-out scheduled to be completed by December 2023.
The Alexandria installation is one of five ‘pilot sites’ service stations that will include Carseldine in Queensland, Northmead in NSW, Altona North in Victoria and Belmont in Western Australia.
Ampol is beginning to roll out its EV charging network
Each site will be capable of delivering 150kW fast charging and will be able to charge two electric cars at once.
What is the AmpCharge network and how does it work for the consumer?
Ampcharge is the new electric subsidiary brand of Ampol, one of the largest petroleum companies in Australia. The corporation has a network of approximately 1900 service locations across the country.
That’s a fair slice of a market that contains an estimated 6500 service stations across Australia.
Charging your EV will get easier and more convenient with time
Ampol is the first to add electric vehicle chargers to its existing petrol stations, a smart decision not only to add business to the company but to also extend charging locations for EV owners.
While owners wait to charge their cars, they can go inside and get something to eat or drink – a smart move by Ampol to bring in a new kind of business to their service station locations.
How many EV chargers are currently in Australia?
There are approximately 3000 chargers in Australia so far
According to Australian researcher Savvy, there are just over 3000 public electric car chargers in Australia. Some 2531 of those are AC powered, with the remaining 470 chargers being of the fast-charging DC type.
The most chargers are located in New South Wales, with the fewest quantity available in the Northern Territory for obvious reasons.
While the groundswell of interest in EVs is quickly expanding, just 0.78 percent of the new car market is made up of electric vehicles, while in comparison, Norway is 75 percent.
In 2020, the global average of new electric car sales was 4.2 percent, so Australia still has some catching up to do.
