Power grid foils Ampol’s big EV charger plans

Ampol, one of the country’s 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.

The company’s 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.

Ampol chief executive Matt Halliday with electric vehicle chargers at the company’s petrol and EV charging station in Alexandria, Sydney. Louie Douvis

“The progress of the EV fast-charging network development is slower than we expected given the difficulties in connecting to the grid in Australia in particular,” he said at the company’s interim result on Monday. “We have a pipeline of approximately 100 bays either awaiting grid connection or under construction in Australia and New Zealand.”

“[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,” Mr Halliday added. “There are a lot of constraints that need to be worked through.”

In March, Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the government would spend $60 million helping car dealerships install chargers on sales lots. More broadly, the government has brought in new fuel efficiency standards for larger vehicles

But hopes that the vast majority of new cars sold would be electric by 2030, contained in Labor’s pre-election policies, have been imperiled by slowing sales, in line with global trends. Motorists, official figures show, are opting instead for hybrid vehicles.

A spokeswoman for Mr Bowen said the government’s new car emissions standards would “come into effect next year and will drive increased choice of efficient vehicles including EVs”. She declined to comment on policy changes to increase uptake.

Hybrid vehicles – which have both an internal combustion engine and a modest-range battery – are stealing a march on EVs. Figures from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries showed sales of hybrid vehicles climbed 88.4 per cent in July compared with the same month a year ago. Battery EVs made up 6.6 per cent of total new vehicle sales in July, slightly down from 7 per cent in July 2023.

Moelis analyst Sarah Mann said demand for cleaner vehicles was being driven by hybrids, which represented 20 per cent of sales in July, up 11 per cent on the same month the prior year. Sales for battery-powered vehicles, like those made by Tesla, fell to 6.6 per cent that month, down from 7 per cent in the prior corresponding period.

The NSW government scrapped a $3000 EV rebate scheme on January 1, while a stamp duty exemption for new and used EVs costing less than $78,000 ended on December 31. South Australia dumped a $3000 EV subsidy on December 31, while the Victorian government ended an electric vehicle subsidy program in mid-2023.

A dearth of EV chargers will in particular affect long-haul motorists. Chargers range from 75 kilowatts for a small charging bay to 300 kilowatts for fast chargers, and operators typically install three to five at a site, imposing substantial new loads that local low-voltage networks have not previously had to bear, said Ross De Rango, head of energy and infrastructure at the Electric Vehicle Council.

Some distribution network operators publish up-to-date maps of local networks, enabling applicants to see, for example, that a nearby transformer has 200 kilowatts of spare capacity, sufficient to deploy a couple of 75-kilowatt chargers, Mr De Rango said. Or, it might show that the transformer and feeder are full.

If several fast chargers are being installed, the local transformer, feeder cable or substation may not have enough capacity, requiring an upgrade that prolongs the process. Sites can take from three to 24 months from application to commissioning.

Mr Halliday has previously said connections to the grid for fast-charging stations as a “huge challenge”. He told The Australian Financial Review ESG Summit in June that an average expected connection time of six months had ballooned to 18 months.

Ampol also faced difficulties in connecting fast-charging stations to the electricity grid, Mr Haliday said, adding that a couple of years ago Ampol was anticipating it would take six months to connect stations to the grid, but that timeframe had since ballooned to 18 months.

ALD ASX: Ampol’s plan to triple EV chargers blows out in hit to clean car push (copyright link)