Hussein Dia, Swinburne University of Technology

Plunging battery prices and cheap running costs mean battery electric vehicles are now outselling petrol cars across Europe and China.

In Australia, battery EVs have reached 23% of new car sales. That figure could be higher still – if it wasn’t for the question of charging. When on longer trips, drivers have to rely on the public fast charging network. This can be frustrating. Different providers and types of chargers, gaps in the network and reliability questions mean it’s still not as simple as going to a service station.

No single authority is responsible for the EV charger rollout. To date, it’s largely been driven by private investment. The result: a charger network with real strengths – and clear gaps.

Most drivers don’t charge EVs like they fuel a car – they plug in while working, shopping or sleeping. If we try to recreate the familiar network of petrol stations, there’s a risk we may not build the right kind of public chargers or in the places people can access them.

What does the charger network look like?

The public fast charger network is expanding rapidly along major highways, in suburban shopping centres, workplaces and local streets.

As of early July, 1,316 public charging sites are operational across Australia, representing more than 4,000 charging ports. Of these, 54% are DC fast chargers rated at 50 kilowatts or more.

Nationally, most Australians live close to a charger. About 88% of people live within 5 kilometres of a charger, 93% within 10km and 97% within 20km.

Most fast chargers are concentrated in major cities and along coastal routes, leaving large gaps in some regions.

Who owns and runs the charging network?

The public charging network is split among competing commercial operators.

Chargefox bundles hundreds of operators into one app, providing consumers with access to a large charging network. It’s now owned by motorist clubs such as NRMA.

The Evie network focuses on DC fast-charging.

The Tesla Supercharger Network can be used by Tesla drivers, as well as non-Tesla drivers in some locations.

Some service station chains have moved into the space. BP and Ampol bolt fast chargers onto existing service stations.

Jolt and Exploren offer urban solutions for shopping centres and council carparks, while providers such as EVX install kerbside and pole-mounted AC chargers on local streets.

On the plus side, this means a variety of options. On the negative side, many drivers have to set up multiple apps to ensure they can charge. Some networks are less reliable than others, which can affect how quickly you get to your destination.

Recent analysis found a single operator – Chargefox – runs 83% of all public chargers in Tasmania and 58% in Western Australia. That dependence is a vulnerability – one network outage could threaten a whole state’s public chargers.

Who has oversight?

No single authority or organisation is in charge.

Responsibility is shared. The Australian government gives national policy direction and funding for strategic charging corridors. States and territories collaborate on standards and regional charging and support metropolitan rollouts through grants and infrastructure programs.

Local councils identify good locations and can trial neighbourhood chargers.

Electricity distributors enable network connections, while private companies invest in and operate much of the charging infrastructure.

The Australian Energy Regulator and Australian Energy Market Commission oversee the energy side, setting and enforcing rules over how charging networks connect to the grid and what they can own.

As a result, Australia’s charger network has grown quickly but not always coherently.

The upside is that competition attracted private investment, accelerated innovation and expanded consumer choice. The downside is no one is responsible for ensuring the entire network works seamlessly.

The future of public charging

Australia’s charger network is unlikely to resemble today’s petrol station network. Instead, we will have many options.

Home charging will remain the cheapest and most convenient option for many households.

Kerbside charging will become increasingly important for apartment residents and renters.

Destination charging at shopping centres, workplaces and transport hubs will allow vehicles to recharge while people go about their day.

Fast highway chargers will support long-distance travel.

What are other countries doing?

Many countries have gone faster and further with their public charger networks, locating chargers where cars already are – kerbsides, apartment car parks, workplaces and shopping strips.

The Netherlands has around 210,000 charging points, mainly slow kerbside chargers. It treats public charging as essential infrastructure because 70% of households don’t have off-street parking.

Norway has laws giving residents the right to install a charging point at their parking space. The country leans heavily on home charging, allowing it to get by with far fewer public fast chargers — around 10,700.

China has about 4.8 million public chargers and is pioneering a network of megawatt chargers for electric trucks.

Building smarter

It’s tempting to focus on new technologies, such as China’s megawatt “flash” chargers adding 400km of range in five minutes. This could help road-trippers and electric truck drivers, but it won’t help an apartment resident unable to charge near home.

What will help is fixing the fragmentation. There’s a strong case to introduce a coordinating role – an authority able to set the rules and make the network feel seamless to drivers.

That would unlock interoperability, allowing one app or card to work across every network, transparent and comparable pricing, minimum reliability standards, and open real-time data on where chargers are and whether they’re working. Competition can build the network, but coordination is what makes it usable.

A public charger isn’t like a petrol pump. It’s closer to a parking space or a bus stop — everyday urban infrastructure designed to fit into an ordinary day. Done right, it will become invisible. Park the car, plug it in and walk away.

Hussein Dia, Professor of Transport Technology and Sustainability, Swinburne University of Technology

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.