Another 1,000 electric vehicle chargers will arrive in New South Wales in the next two years and businesses could find funding to switch to electric trucks, under the state government’s updated EV strategy.
The NSW government announced the $100m package on Tuesday as EV purchases soar while the US-Israel war on Iran disrupts oil supply and sends petrol prices surging.
A record 14.6% of new vehicle sales in March were battery-electric. Used EV sales more than doubled in the month, the Australian Automotive Dealer Association has reported.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, said the new EV policies would help motorists save money while making Australia more independent and resilient to future energy shocks and overseas conflicts.
“We would be absolutely crazy to believe that this is the last conflict that will take place in the Middle East,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
“This happens regularly, over and over again. We can expect it again, a big one in a decade’s time, but we’ve got to be prepared.”
The updated strategy includes $100m for new measures, including assisting the installation of 1,000 public chargers to address a shortage of plug-in points, which Minns said would take “a couple of years”.
New chargers will be installed in regions and suburbs without any charging infrastructure and at least every 100km across all major highways in NSW.
The premier, who previously said EVs should not be reserved for “snobs that live in the eastern suburbs”, said expanded access would let families in more areas make the switch to electric.
“I said in the past that this has essentially been a program for elites … but we want to make sure that everybody gets access to an electric vehicle,” he said.
“Now is the time to double down on it, to send a clear message to those in the marketplace.”
An existing fleet incentive scheme, which has helped more than 240 businesses and other organisations buy over 5,600 EVs, will be expanded to assist in the purchase of medium-sized trucks.
The government will also invest in training for 2,000 regional mechanics so country drivers can have their vehicles safely looked after closer to home.
‘Chargers everywhere’
The energy minister, Penny Sharpe, said more options were being considered to “drive as much EV uptake as we possibly can”.
“Where we want to get to is that there are just chargers everywhere [so] that you don’t need to worry about having identified parking, you can just basically plug and play,” she said.
The government is still working to introduce a right to install EV chargers in strata buildings, according to the strategy.
Minns said the government was open to overruling local councils to approve new chargers, which charging companies have said have stood in the way of new infrastructure.
Councils “move too slow”, the premier said. “In our first instance, we should be working with them, but in the end we retain the right to push this infrastructure out because we can’t wait.”
Energy companies have applied for permission to install chargers on the side of electricity poles, covering the cost by hiking prices for energy customers. Minns said the government had not ruled the idea out and would make a decision “soon”.
“We’re not closing down the unsolicited proposal but it’s not as straightforward as perhaps many believe,” he said.
“None of these chargers are going to be wasted, which is our overall point – you can’t build enough,” he said.
Minns said the government remained committed to its road user charge, set for July 2027, putting a fee of 2.97 cents a kilometre for an EV and 2.37c/km for a plug-in hybrid.
The Albanese government had been considering its own national road user charge ahead of the budget in May but the federal transport minister, Catherine King, on Sunday suggested any barriers to EV uptake should be off the table.
Western Australia is planning to impose a similar scheme at the same time as NSW’s. King noted that state schemes ran the risk of a high court challenge, like the one that struck down Victoria’s scheme in 2023.
“We don’t want to disincentivise that at all,” King said.
“If there is such a scheme it does need to be national, but as I said we’ve got a balance to strike here.”
