THE STRUGGLE TO produce the infrastructure to deal with the booming sales of EVs is having its inevitable consequences.
As reported by the UK Daily Mail, over Christmas, long queues of Teslas were seen in various locations, including on the Victorian/New South Wales border at Albury/Wodonga and in a Coffs Harbour, NSW carpark.
Some drivers faced a 90-minute wait to get to a charger, and many complained bitterly about the lack of infrastructure set up to meet demand across Australia.
One furious owner suggested that travelling during peak periods in an EV could mean adding three hours to the trip, just to include recharging time.
It is an interesting statistic that there are eleven petrol stations in Wodonga, across a wide range of brands, but only one place where EVs can be charged.
Oops! No cable!
Meanwhile, another couple who hired a Tesla Model 3 for a recent trip to Echuca (rural Victoria) as a “try before you buy” test run will probably be reconsidering plans to buy an EV.
On Day Three of the Six Day trip, the Sydney couple discovered, as they attempted to attach to a recharging point in Leitchville on the NSW/Vic border that they were missing the necessary adaptor. With just 12km of battery range left, they realised, to their horror that the hire car wasn’t carrying the right cable to make the connection.
Despite flagging down a passing tow truck, the towie couldn’t help out with the right cable, or any other way to charge the car. The couple finally arranged with the car hire company to have the car towed to another charging station at the hire company’s expense. But it did mean they’d have to extend their trip by an extra day. At their own expense.
A growing problem
EVs made up nearly two percent of new car sales in 2021, but by 2030, EVs will comprise 18 percent of new car sales. Petrol-only new car sales will have slumped to just 24 percent, with the remainder made up of hybrid petrol and electric vehicles.
Some experts estimate that Australia will need to have 2.8 million public charging stations by 2030. That’s an awful lot more than the few thousands already installed.
Not just an Australian problem
The problem is far from limited to Australia.
In the UK, around 24 Telsa owners were lined up for an hour to recharge in a Waitrose car park in Hertfordshire on Christmas day … probably not what they had planned to be doing. One irate owner reported after queuing for over an hour, there were still 15 vehicles ahead of him.
Of course, the UK situation was exacerbated by rail strikes that forced millions more onto the roads. Analysts were predicting as many as 12 million cars on the road on Wednesday, 4 January.