{"id":340387,"date":"2024-08-22T18:41:44","date_gmt":"2024-08-22T16:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=340387"},"modified":"2024-08-22T18:41:46","modified_gmt":"2024-08-22T16:41:46","slug":"australia-is-running-out-of-electricity-to-charge-electric-cars-and-theyre-only-0-9-of-cars-on-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=340387","title":{"rendered":"Australia is running out of electricity to charge electric cars, and they\u2019re only 0.9% of cars on the road"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From JoNova <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jo Nova<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

No one saw this car crash coming?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

EV\u2019s represent just 0.9% of all cars on the road in Australia but plans to install fast chargers are already grinding to a crawl. Last year, Ampol was planning to build 180 EV charging bays<\/a> by the end of the year. Instead it\u2019s proved difficult to even reach half that target. Eight months after they were supposed to have 180 in action they\u2019ve reached 92.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just throw money\u2026<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A mere 3 weeks ago Ampol announced that thanks to a $100 million dollar grant from the Australian government they would install more than 200 new fast chargers at Ampol\u2019s national network<\/a> of petrol stations this year. But presumably after making a few phone calls they\u2019ve realized it\u2019s not going to happen. (You\u2019d think they might have made the calls before putting out the press release? Or the Minister might have phoned a friend before tossing $100 million to the wind?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Power grid foils Ampol\u2019s big EV charger plans<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Ben Potter and Simon Evans, Australian Financial Review<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ampol, one of the country\u2019s largest petrol retailers, has dialled back plans to triple the number of electric vehicle chargers because of power grid limitations in a blow to government hopes of pushing motorists towards cleaner cars in big numbers by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company\u2019s chief executive, Matt Halliday, said it would not be possible to expand the number of charging bays from 92 to 300 by the end of this year because of difficulties connecting chargers to the grid which is already struggling to cope with an influx of renewable energy generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March, Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the government would spend $60 million helping car dealerships install chargers on sales lots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[As] much as we spend a lot of time talking about generation, firming and transmission infrastructure, the last mile distribution grid is not really built for large-scale electrification, despite the best will that the players have to try and make it happen,\u201d Mr Halliday added. \u201cThere are a lot of constraints that need to be worked through.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These people are not good with numbers. A fast charger needs 300 kilowatts, and if there are three car charging spaces in a row, that\u2019s a major load that our low voltage lines simply can\u2019t bear. In order to get the local distribution networks upgraded the wait times to connect these fast chargers can be as long as two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not to mention that we\u2019re supposedly aiming to make all new cars electric in a mere five years or so, while we also try to shut down our largest coal plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the moment most EVs charging <\/a>overnight are <\/a>probably burning more fossil fuels than petrol cars do. The EV revolution in Australia (should it happen) would rampantly increase our carbon dioxide emissions. But who cares, right? It was never about CO2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not like engineers haven\u2019t been warning<\/a> us this was going to happen for ten years.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

h\/t Dave of Cooyal in Oz, and CO2 Lover<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EV\u2019s represent just 0.9% of all cars on the road in Australia but plans to install fast chargers are already grinding to a crawl. Last year, Ampol was planning to build 180 EV charging bays by the end of the year. Instead it\u2019s proved difficult to even reach half that target. Eight months after they were supposed to have 180 in action they\u2019ve reached 92.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":340391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818216,691821977,691830278],"class_list":{"0":"post-340387","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-electric-vehicles-evs","10":"tag-fast-chargers","12":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/0shifting-gears-on-electric-cars-evx-targets-ev-charging.webp?fit=2169%2C1220&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1qy7","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":248932,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=248932","url_meta":{"origin":340387,"position":0},"title":"Big-Gov Desperation: Now we need a $3,000 parking fine to keep sacred \u201cEV\u201d charging spots clear","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"21\/03\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"So EV drivers need another subsidy then?","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-872.png?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-872.png?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-872.png?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-872.png?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-872.png?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":243928,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=243928","url_meta":{"origin":340387,"position":1},"title":"Are electric vehicle charging stations really worth taxpayer money?\u201d","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"09\/02\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Charging at home is a favored feature of electric vehicles (EVs). 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