How easy is it to charge an electric vehicle in Sydney’s inner-city?

By ERIN MODARO

With electric vehicle sales in Australia following an upwards trend, more Australians than ever are facing the question of where to charge their cars. For homeowners, this answer is simple, but for those without access to at home charging, owning and charging an EV can be a more difficult task.

Images of EV users with power cords wrapped around fences and taped down over footpaths to charge their cars have emerged in Sydney. One Inner West resident told CityHub that she throws her charging cable through a tree to charge her EV, as she only has access to on street parking.

“If I’m lucky and get a parking spot right outside the house when the battery is low, I throw a cable through a tree and plug it in that way so it isn’t a trip hazard” Trish, the Glebe resident, said. 

Trish said that she has to charge her car at the local shops, however finds they are often busy and have long wait times to charge. Currently, options for those without at-home charging include public charging stations at shops and petrol stations, and council provided charging.

“I’ll go to somewhere like a shopping centre and hope for the best” she said. 

The percentage of new Sydney homes and apartments being built without car spaces has been steadily increasing in the past few years. Many residents in Sydney’s inner-city and inner west only have access to public-on street parking, which can often be unreliable.

A chairperson of the NSW Australian Electric Vehicle Association told City Hub that not having access to charging is the “biggest impediment” stopping Australians from going electric. 

However, Michael noted that the “vast majority” of EV owners are also homeowners, and so charging for those with on-street parking is acting more as a deterrent from buying an EV than a wide-spread issue.

Obstacles for EV charging in apartment buildings

Michael also explained that for people who live in apartments or units, they often have to lobby for chargers to be installed in their building.

Barry, who represents a company that installs electric vehicle charging, says that building corporations and owners have been grappling with the cost of installing EV charging in residential buildings.

“One of the problems is that the owners corporations generally do not have the money to install electric vehicle charging” Barry said. 

The NSW government is currently running a program facilitating the installation of EV infrastructure in buildings, which seeks to mitigate this issue. However, Barry said that unit or apartment owners seeking to sell have found that a lack of access to EV charging is stopping potential buyers from committing.

“There isn’t enough infrastructure at the moment” Barry said. 

Governments and councils are working towards providing infrastructure for Australia’s growing EV market. The NSW government released the Electric Vehicle Strategy outlining a path towards promoting EV ownership in 2021.

Additionally, several eastern suburbs councils have launched programs to build public EV charging stations in local hotspots. A trial of power-pole charging stations, funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, has been approved by several inner-city councils earlier in the year, however no date for a roll out has been set.