Electric highway charger supplier named

The first electric vehicle charger along Western Australia's proposed electric highway is expected to be installed by the end of this year courtesy of a major Victoria-based outfit.

Energy Minister Bill Johnston, Environment Minister Reece Whitby and Premier Mark McGowan today announced JET Charge had been awarded a contract to install 98, 150-kilowatt DC EV chargers at 49 locations across the state.

The network, to be delivered as part of a $4.1 million effort by Synergy and Horizon Power, is expected to be fully up and running by 2024.

Mr Johnston said the state government was supporting rapid uptake of EVs and that JET Charge was a well-known local company that was considered an expert in the field.

“When the project is complete, there will be charging stations averaging less than 200 kilometres apart, ensuring EV owners can explore our amazing state without any range anxiety,” he said.

JET Charge was founded in 2013 in Victoria and employs about 100 staff.

The company successfully raised $25 million in February with RAC Victoria and Clean Energy Finance Corporation among its notable backers.

That came after the company collected $4.5 million from investors in 2020.

In an accompanying ministerial statement, chief executive Tim Washington said he’d created the company to break down barriers to EV ownership.

“JET Charge are so proud to be involved with a landmark EV charging network that features a lot of Australian made innovation and will absolutely smash those barriers allowing people to drive EVs all over the great state of Western Australia,” he said.

Today's news follows analysis published by The Australia Institute on Monday that purported to show $5.9 billion in fuel costs would have been saved if the federal government had adopted fuel efficiency standards as early as 2015.

Australia is one of few major economies not to mandate fuel efficiency standards for passenger vehicles.

That research came on the same day as Nine Entertainment reported that the federal Chamber of Automotive Industries had launched a secret campaign to have the industry's voluntary emissions scheme reflected in federal regulation.

If adopted, that scheme would still put Australia's fuel efficiency standards behind most major economies, many of which will ban the sale of internal combustion engine vehicles by the 2030s.

The Australia Institute climate and energy program director Richie Merzian said Australians were paying for a lack of fuel efficiency standards at the petrol pump.

“Previous attempts to introduce fuel efficiency standards in Australia have been marred by disinformation and outright lies," he said.

"Unfortunately it is everyday Australians bearing the cost."