Wodonga Council has announced that there will be more Electric Vehicle fast charging coming to the regional Victorian city. The new Electric Vehicle fast charger will be provided by and on the Evie Network, one of Australia’s growing networks of fast chargers around the region.
The plan involves transforming 2 existing parks in the Acacia Car Park into EV fast charging stations.
For those familiar with the area, this location is in a great position, close to the Woolworths Supermarket, allowing EV owners to charge and shop. It’s also located near many food outlets like Country Chicken Stop, Zambrero’s, KFC and multiple coffee shops. Wodonga main street, High street, is a short walk away, as is the Kmart and Coles complex that also houses Donut King, Subway, Greenstreet and more.
For those stopping to charge on road trips between Sydney or Canberra and Melbourne, there’s also a great park close by at Junction Place, perfect for stretching your legs and grabbing an ice cream. This really is a great location, the only problem will be they need to build more of them!
Australia’s appetite for Electric Vehicles is growing rapidly, heading toward 10% of new car sales. With Wodonga being such a strategic location along the Hume Highway, we need more charging locations to stay ahead of demand.
For a rapidly growing, key regional location approaching a population of 50,000 people, the town is incredibly underserved by EV charging options. The need for increased charging infrastructure has been demonstrated during peak travel times, with many EV owners waiting at the 6-bay Tesla Supercharger during Easter and Christmas holidays.
Thankfully Tesla, the most popular EV maker in the country and much of the world is also building a new 15-bay Supercharger just across the river in Albury. Those who have bought an alternative brand, they’ve had to rely on fast charging options at Barnawartha, particularly given the 1x NRMA 50kW fast charger in Albury’s CBD was recently vandalised and is currently offline.
Evie Network locations are rolling out fast, with almost weekly news of new locations coming online. In regional Victoria, this makes visiting family or friends, or travelling for work in an EV, much easier, more convenient and less stressful.
Adam Saddler, Manager of Economic Development, Investment Attraction and Economic Development at Wodonga Council, says increasing Wodonga’s EV charging capacity holds multiple benefits.
Use of electric vehicles is increasing across the country and it’s imperative that we have the infrastructure in place to complement this rise. The installation of an EV fast charger will make our region more attractive to EV tourists, while its universal capability enhances accessibility.
The selected location made sense for multiple reasons – the parking spaces are in a popular area where tourists and residents alike can easily access them and construction will have minimal impact on movement around the area.
The EV charger will be centrally located and there for everyone.
Works are set to commence on Monday, August 14 and will take approximately five days to complete. Following this it is expected to take two months for energisation to occur, after which the spaces will be available to use. Unfortunately, this is a story we’ve seen repeated time and time again, with Ausnet, the energy provider in our region, being slow to commission new EV charging locations.
I want to congratulate Wodonga Council for supporting this initiative, let’s have more of it.
If you’re new to EV ownership, or considering one, make sure you check out Plugshare.com for a list of all the chargers and use the filtering on the left to set your charging preferences (AC/DC fast charging, charging networks etc.
As yet, Plugshare doesn’t list this upcoming location, as such we don’t know any further information on the top speed of the fast charger or which 2 connectors will be available, but let’s hope for 150kW and 2x CCS2 connectors to suit the maximum number of EVs on sale in Australia.
