Motoringservice bodies buy EV play Chargefox Lucas BairdReporter...

Motoringservice bodies buy EV play Chargefox

Lucas BairdReporter

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Statemotor service bodies and insurers are throwing their financial and politicalclout behind electric vehicle charging stations, in a move aimed ataccelerating Australia’s anaemic rollout of EVs.

Acompany owned by a group of motoring service bodies and insurers has boughtelectric vehicle charging infrastructure company Chargefox in a deal that values it at $56 million, powering ambitions to roll out 5000 new charging plugs by 2025.

Chargefox chief executive Marty Andrews saidthe buyout recognised Australia was at a “tipping point” in its electricvehicle take-up and more favourable policies under the Albanese government areexpected to boost sales, which currently number only tens of thousandsannually.

We’re now on an exponential growth curve,” MrAndrews said. “So we need to keep up with infrastructure to support EV uptakeand to achieve that we needed a big capital injection.”

Chargefoxhas built a network of 1000 plugs in Australia and New Zealand – a handful ofwhich are rapid chargers – since Mr Andrews and co-founders Tim Washington andMark Wells set up the company in 2017.

But hesaid it was getting harder to expand the network fast enough to keep up withdemand, hence the takeover and capital injection from Australian MotoringServices.

AMS isowned by motoring clubs and insurers across the nation, including NRMA and the Royal Automobile Clubs of Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia.

AMS wasalready a shareholder in Chargefox, and has bought out the rest of the companyit did not own.

AMSchief executive Micheal Reed said it had a mutual goal with Chargefox to“reduce road transport emissions to zero and support the growing community ofEV drivers”.

“Wecontinue to see a large number of EV’s on the road and the number ofAustralians who are considering purchasing an EV in the future is growingyear-on-year,” Mr Reed said.

“Combined,we’ll have greater power and opportunity to deliver infrastructure thatAustralians need to increase the uptake of EVs and therefore reduce roadtransport emissions.“

MrAndrews believed the clout and lobbying power of AMS and its shareholders wouldalso help convince governments to subsidise charging stations in rural andremote areas where it is not commercially viable to build currently.

“Youneed that to get the regional places going with EVs too.“

Hestressed state governments were supportive of the EV market and that the newfederal Labor government had some more forward-thinking policies aimed atboosting electric vehicle take-up, some of which came into effect on July 1.

TheAlbanese government has exempted some EVs from overseas import tariffs andfringe benefits taxes, which apply to vehicles provided to staff by theiremployers. These exemptions will apply only to EVs sold below the luxury cartax threshold – $79,659 this financial year – for fuel-efficient cars.

The former Coalition government campaigned against Labor’spro-EV policies in 2019, claiming they would wreck the weekend.

Areport from online asset finance broker Savvy found local EVs made up just 1.6per cent of all new vehicle registrations last year. Although this was well upon 2020, it was still far below the global average of 9 per cent.

MrAndrews said the expansion of the Chargefox network would help ease thepsychological barrier for consumers concerned about how they would charge theirEV if they were to purchase one.

“Youneed to keep the balance between the EVs and the infrastructure right becausewe can’t be successful if there aren’t any EVs on the road and there won’t beany EVs on the road if there aren’t many charging stations,” he said.

MrAndrews was “very positive and confident” about the future of EVs in Australia,saying the election of climate-focused teal independents and more supportive policy settings would drive demand.