Ampol is getting serious about rolling out charging infrastructure at their service stations. Today they officially turned on their AmpCharge electric vehicle charging site at its Ampol Woolworths MetroGo site in Alexandria, NSW.
In reality, many EV owners had already discovered this and since the first Check-in on PlugShare by Rory RedDog on July 27th, there’s been a total of 97 check-ins. Keep in mind that not everyone checks in when charging, so this site appears to be quite popular.
If you’re in the area, and have an EV, AmpCharge charging is free until 31 August 2022.
Charging at Ampol no doubt feels a little weird, after all, part of the EV movement is about breaking away from the big fossil fuel companies. In reality, these are energy providers and one by one are all seeing their future business as charging locations, rather than refuelling locations.
This adds to EV charging locations in Carseldine, QLD, Northmead, NSW, Altona North, VIC and Belmont, WA that are expected to all be active within the next month. You can get a full list of the growing locations at AmpCharge.
Each site will be capable of recharging speeds up to 150kw and have the capacity to charge at least two vehicles concurrently. The one station does feature two different connectors, one CCS2 Plug and one CHADeMO so unless you happen to pull up your Model 3 next to a Nissan leaf, you may be in for a wait.
What’s smart about aligning charging locations at service stations, is their proximity to convenience stores. We all need to eat and when charging your EV, the business will be hoping you enter the store and spend some additional money.
Electric Vehicle charging infrastructure is starting to expand rapidly, with a growing number of providers now competing for business from EV owners. These 5 locations are the start of 120 sites to be delivered on Ampol forecourts Australia-wide by December 2023 as part of an agreement with the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
The five pilot sites have solar panels and solar battery storage provisions which we are trialling with the view to rolling out across our network. In addition, the energy used by our AmpCharge EV chargers will be 100% offset by Large Scale Generation Certificates (LGCs) to net the equivalent electricity consumption.
Matt Halliday, Ampol Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, said the milestone reflects Ampol’s shift to offer new energy solutions for customers to support the uptake of battery electric vehicles across Australia.
Brent Merrick, Ampol’s Executive General Manager, International and New Business said Ampol is looking to establish the leading EV charging network in Australia by 2030.
“Electrification and electric vehicles will play a critical role in reducing emissions across Australia’s transport sector over the coming years and we have an important role to play in supporting this transition.
“Our vision for the Ampol EV network is to develop a best-in-class EV charging ecosystem enabling the rollout of our own charging assets and allowing us to partner with others to form Australia’s leading EV charging network. The milestone today is part of the first-stage rollout of fast charging technology to sites across our national retail network.”
Brent Merrick, Ampol’s Executive General Manager, International and New Business