“A future without petrol bills:” Labor promises Australia-wide EV charging network – EQ Mag Pro

Federal Labor has promised to ‘fill the gaps’ in Australia’s electric vehicle charging network, announcing a plan to fund new fast-chargers along some of Australia’s major highways.

Addressing the official launch of the Labor election campaign in Perth, Labor leader Anthony Albanese said the expanded network would allow Australians to “drive an electric vehicle across the country.”

“Together with Labor’s already announced Electric Vehicle Discount, we’ll make it easier and cheaper for your next car to be electric,” Albanese told the campaign launch.

“Imagine a future where you don’t have to worry about petrol bills. We can get there, but we need government to build the foundation for it.”

The electric vehicle charging network will be expanded in partnership with the NRMA, which already operates a network of around 50 fast chargers throughout New South Wales.

Under the pledged $39.3 million network expansion, additional fast chargers will be rolled out at 150-kilometre intervals along major highways, including those crossing large sections of remote and regional Australia.

This will include closing ‘gaps’ within the current charger network, providing charging stations across Nullarbor, linking Adelaide and Perth, as well as main highways between Darwin, Broome and Perth, Broken Hill to Adelaide, and between Brisbane and Mt Isa and across to Tennant Creek.

“The Morrison Government claimed that electric vehicles would ‘end the weekend’ and that hydrogen was ‘snake oil’,” Albanese said.

“Only a Labor Government I lead will deliver a truly national EV Charging Network and roll out Hydrogen Highways across the country. This will be the key to Driving the Nation.”

NRMA Group CEO, Rohan Lund, welcomed the funding commitment which he said would support a further 117 fast charger stations throughout Australia.

“We are committed to growing our existing regional network of fast charging stations across the country because we fundamentally believe that regional Australia should not be left behind as this exciting transition happens,” Lund said.

In addition to the charger rollout, Labor has pledged to establish a $500 million ‘Driving the Nation Fund’, which would effectively double an existing $250 million Future Fuels Fund established by the Morrison government

Labor’s climate and energy spokesperson, Chris Bowen, said the funding would be managed through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, which would be used to fund additional electric vehicle infrastructure, as well as support new hydrogen and biofuel projects.

“An Albanese Labor Government will end the chaos and restore leadership on energy and climate,” Bowen said.

“Labor will continue to deliver the Driving the Nation Fund through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and will coordinate public investment to ensure that it does not duplicate or crowd out private efforts.”

While launching Labor’s election campaign in Perth, Albanese announced that a Labor gover would also provide co-funding to support the establishment of electric bus manufacturing in Perth.

In collaboration with the Western Australian state government, a federal Labor would contribute to a combined $250 million investment in electric bus manufacturing facilities and the purchase of electric buses by the Labor state government.

WA premier Mark McGowan said the state government would commit to purchasing around 130 of the locally manufactured electric buses, to be incorporated into the Perth public transport system.

Additional funding would be used to upgrade Perth’s bus depot with servicing infrastructure and bus charging systems.

“This investment is a big win for WA jobs, building on my Government’s work to bring train manufacturing back to Western Australia,” WA Premier Mark McGowan said.

“Our State has the skills, capability and local businesses here to deliver quality, state-of-the-art buses – built by Western Australians, for Western Australians.”

“My Government will work together with an Albanese Labor Government to deliver this landmark project, creating more secure manufacturing jobs for Western Australians.”

It is a positive step forward for the WA state government, which had disappointed electric transport advocates when it announced it would stick with diesel bus models when renewing contracts for its public transport network in 2019.

Source: thedriven