On-street charging for EVs, coming to The Rocks, Sydney

2 new Electric Vehicle Charging spots are being installed in Argyle Street, The Rocks, the road market is bright green, clearly aimed at ensuring ICE vehicles get the message, you’re not welcome here.

These two bays will be among the first on-street charging available in Sydney for EV owners.

Internationally, roadside charging is common, particularly in parts of China and Europe, so it’s great to see Australia making similar moves to improve charging opportunities for EV owners.

One of the big advantages of electric vehicles is the ability to leverage the existing power grid. This means you can distribute the charging infrastructure to more convenient places like shopping centres and road-side locations like this.

The Rocks is home to some of the best markets in Sydney, along with plenty of food and shopping outlets. Being able to go park and grab some extra km while you shop is a fantastic initiative and one I hope to see more councils roll out across Australia.

Given the longer charging times associated with EVs, it makes sense to position chargers in locations that provide people with an opportunity to see and do other activities while charging.

It is not yet known if there’ll be any timeframes placed on these parking bays. I hope EV owners are responsible and only use these places when charging, not simply for parking.

It is important to keep in mind, that while your current car may not be an EV today, it’s likely your next one will be, so this infrastructure is likely something you can use in the future.

It is likely the chargers that will be installed at this location are similar to the street-side NRMA charger at Sydney Olympic Park. These chargers are Veefil RTs, made by Brisbane-based Tritium. They offer 50kW of charging and feature both CHadeMO and CCS connectors to suit most EVs.

These are now in use by over 20 countries and Australia, it’s time we caught up. Other roadside chargers require EV owners to BYO charging cables which is a little less convenient but are less prone to vandalism.

Update (19/06/2020)
We now have new photos of the charging location which shows the charger is now installed. The charger looks to be generic, with 2 Mennekes (Type 2) charging outlet. It also looks like you will need to bring your own charging cable if you want to use the location.

EV owners can buy charging cables from JetCharge.com.au. In this instance, you’ll want a 32A/22kW cable that capable of adding around 120km of range per hour in something like a Tesla Model 3.

Update 2 (19/06/2020)
I had assumed that this land was controlled by the council, but have since learned the EV charging spaces have been installed by Place Management NSW on their land.