If you’re considering buying an EV, you’ll want to know that charging your electric car is easy and available. In a major development in Australia’s electric charger landscape, Chargefox has been acquired by Australian Motoring Services (AMS) which is made up of RACV, RACQ, NRMA, RAC, RACT and RAA.
In the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to charge at a number of Chargefox locations, offering the fastest ultra-rapid chargers available (350kW) from a mix of manufacturers including Tritium and ABB.
If you travel off the main highways, you’ll likely come across chargers provided by AMS, although these are often 50kW, they often provide free charging. This aggregation of charging options will ultimately benefit Australians choosing an electric vehicle for their next vehicle, with the acquisition helping to accelerate Chargefox’s ambitious target to have more than 5,000 EV plugs to be made available at stations across the country and 2,000 of those offering fast and/or ultra-rapid charging speeds.
For those not yet in an EV, the charging rates do vary based on the vehicle, but the fastest enables you to add as much as 400km in 15 minutes.
Chargefox has a number of existing partnerships with EV OEMs, many of which offer years of free charging with a vehicle purchase. If you are paying, you can get 20% off the cost of charging if you’re an RACV, RACQ, NRMA member.
You can explore the Chargefox network here, and are well represented along the east coast of Australia, where much of Australia lives. As they add new chargers, they will increase options at locations we often travel to.
This is a big move by AMS, who will now compete with alternative charging network providers like Tesla and Evie Networks.
The history of Chargefox is an interesting one, back in October 2018, Chargefox received $6 Million in funding from the Government’s Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). This financing was a co-investment, for a total project cost of $15 million.
The initial scope of the project was to add 21 ultra-rapid EV charging sites. Since then Chargefox has grown significantly. To date, Chargefox has powered more than 14 million carbon-free kms and abated more than 4,000 tonnes of CO2 (equivalent to more than 2 million kilos of coal burnt).
While there were no disclosures around the price of the acquisition, what we do know is that AMS was already an investor in Chargefox, but has now expanded that ownership. This means other investors like Wilson Transformers and the founder of Carsales, Greg Roebuck are likely the beneficiaries of this buyout.
Congrats to Marty Andrews, CEO and Co-Founder of Chargefox and the team that are helping transition Australia to a renewable transport sector.
