Charging Electric Vehicles in the ACT

To accommodate more EVs on Canberra roads, a greater number of charging stations could be made available across the territory. How could charging stations be distributed to meet the goal of 180 charging stations by 2025, and beyond?

Many people charge their EVs at home as this is the cheapest and most convenient option. But this isn’t possible for everyone – people living in apartment buildings, renters who can’t install a home charger, and tourists visiting Canberra, all need to use public chargers.

There are also different types of chargers, depending on drivers’ needs. Fast chargers can recharge a battery in 30-60 minutes, but are expensive to install and use. Slow chargers are cheaper, but might take 6-8 hours to recharge an EV.

The ACT government has access to registration data of EV’s, but minimal data to understand EV driver habits, and in turn, the best locations to install the different types of charging stations. What datasets, data models, or data-driven evidence can help us inform our decision?

There are several ways to consider this problem in your response. Consider:

1. How charging stations could be distributed:
   1. Canberra’s layout, and where charging stations could be placed in proximity to each other, and
   2. The placement of charging stations at ‘common’ locations, such as shopping malls and community facilities, considering ‘dwell time’ (the average time people spend at a location).
2. ‘Need’ for charging stations:
   1. Is ‘need’ defined as ‘highest demand by the highest number of people’, and/or when charging stations are needed for long-distance trips (such as to reduce ‘range anxiety’), and/or
   2. where there are many residents who may not be able to charge at their home residence?
3. Could charging stations be an incentive to encourage greater EV use? How?

Additional Information