Australia’s Most EV-Friendly Capitals And Regions

Rollin Insurance has taken a stab at determining the most EV-friendly capital cities, regions and sub-regions in Australia.

The firm based its rankings on 5 metrics, each graded on a 100 point scale proportional to its importance; with areas then given a weighted index score.

• Infrastructure – Level of public charging available to drivers (32 points)
• Cost – The cost for charging EVs at publicly available outlets – median price per kWh (32 points)
• Popularity – EV (battery electric vehicles only) share of all registered light vehicles (16 points)
• Incentives – Savings from state government discounts and rebates (10 points)
• Growth – 2 year trend in EV penetration by percentage point growth (10 points)

The Rankings

Here’s how the capitals ranked (greater metropolitan areas) for EV-friendliness.

1. Melbourne
2. Sydney
3. Brisbane
4. Adelaide
5. Canberra
6. Perth
7. Hobart
8. Darwin

While Greater Melbourne EV drivers had access to 249 public chargers vs Greater Sydney’s 265 according to Rollin’s figures, the cost of charging in Melbourne was lower at $0.55 per kWh compared to $0.58 per kWh in Sydney. It also picked up points on incentives – a $100 registration fee discount in Victoria, whereas these days the cupboard is bare in New South Wales.

Note that according to Rollin, charger numbers were sourced from Carloop. But using the Plugshare app, it indicated more in a couple of locations I checked against the report’s figures. No real surprises there I guess with new locations popping up regularly; but I’m wondering if Rollin’s figures are actually charging *sites*. Some sites would have more than one charger, and some chargers can support two vehicles.

As for the top 5 regions (more are listed on the report):

1. Gold Coast, QLD
2. Melbourne – inner, VIC
3. ACT
4. Brisbane – south
5. Sydney – city and inner

And the top 5 sub-regions (again, more in the report):

1. Canberra East, ACT
2. Augusta – Margaret River – Busselton, WA
3. Strathfield – Burwood – Ashfield, NSW
4. Stirling, WA
5. Monash, VIC

Rollin also has rankings for the least EV-friendly areas – the full lists and methodology can be viewed here.

Finding Public Chargers

There are new public charging stations opening every day around Australia – well, it feels that way. To find a station near you, try SolarQuotes’ public charger locator. It’s powered by the (free) PlugShare app, which is a handy thing to have on your phone.

Charge At Home And Save

The cheapest median charging prices according to the report were in Greater Hobart at $0.50 per kWh, and the priciest was Mandurah in WA at $0.69. And there a few locations not far behind at $0.68 – including Sydney’s South-West. It also ranked as the least EV-friendly region in Australia.

In my neck of the woods, Adelaide, the median price was 49c. My better half recently topped up at Royal Adelaide Hospital’s newish charging stations (part of the Chargefox network) to try one out; and that worked out at 45c per kWh. I’m not sure if the price varies depending on the time of day, but this was around 9am; so before all SA’s solar power goodness really starts cranking.

But most of our charging is done at home using surplus solar energy from our PV system and a hard-wire home charger. We have a 10kW solar system (8kW inverter) export limited to 5kW – so we’re making better use and extracting more value from it. Even without solar, there can be savings; particularly if there’s access to cheaper off-peak and shoulder rates.

To learn everything you need to know about home EV charging – check out SQ’s guide. It covers selecting and installing residential EV charging solutions, plus integrating them with a solar system.