Motorists are abandoning petrol and diesel vehicles as the effects of the fuel crisis continue to bite in the lead-up to Easter, with public electric vehicle chargers recording a 20 per cent spike in use.
Electric vehicle drivers have been warned to avoid charging in the middle of the day over the Easter long weekend, when lengthy delays could be experienced at fast chargers, including two on popular holiday routes.
Evie Networks chief networks officer Bernhard Conoplia oversees about one in four of about 4000 DC fast chargers across the country, including more than 100 in Victoria.
He said Easter would be a particularly busy time for the EV charging network, with demand for EV rentals spiking even as fuel excise cuts begin to take effect.
“We would expect our sites at Avenel and Wangaratta to be really busy,” Conoplia said. “They’re on that really key Hume Highway route, but we do have other chargers along that route.
“Over Easter, what we’ve seen in the past is the busiest days are Thursday, Saturday and Monday. So we would suggest to people to really plan ahead with their charging. We see about two times the usage on those days versus a normal day.”
Ben Lamont got to Bright with his family on Friday without needing to stop to charge the BMW EV he has owned for two years.
“We charged it to 100 per cent at home and got here with 15 per cent to spare,” he said.
Lamont, who uses an app to locate charging stations, said he was keen to avoid the peak charging times in the popular tourist town so he recharged his car early on Friday morning.
“We’re set to go and won’t have to stop on the way home,” the Lilydale local said.
As the fuel crisis driven by the Iran war drags on, demand for electric vehicles is rising. Conoplia said Evie expected the number of vehicles to increase from about 350,000 currently on the road to 2 million by 2030.
The Electric Vehicle Council predicts that number will hit 5 million by 2035.
As interest in, and demand for, electric vehicles surges, attention has turned to whether Australia’s EV charging network – a patchwork of government and privately owned stations with divergent pricing models – is ready to support the demand.
“We can see from the data on our network that there’s been a 20 per cent surge in demand just for public charging [in the past month],” Conoplia said.
“It appears that people are leaving their petrol cars at home, and – where they have the choice to drive an EV – they’re absolutely prioritising use of that vehicle because it’s obvious how much cheaper they are to run.”
Asked whether Australia currently has sufficient infrastructure to support the EV boom we know is coming, NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury was blunt.
“No,” he said. “And it’s going to take a long time for us to continue to build that up, as a nation.”
Khoury said NRMA began rolling out charging stations in regional NSW in 2016 before partnering with the federal government to begin rolling out a national network in regional areas.
“Some of the challenges that we’ve been confronted by, which we’ve been trying to address as much as we can, are things like the geographical isolation of the country,” he said.
“There have been some regions, some locations where there’s just no energy to the grid, so we’ve had to build energy sources within the [charging] station itself … some of the chargers in the middle of nowhere have a solar panel battery and then a diesel back-up charger. So it’s been a bit more complicated than I think we would have liked.”
Other challenges have been linking to the existing energy grid and, particularly in the past, sourcing charging technology itself.
“They’re in high demand, and Australia’s had to line up next to everyone else to get the fastest chargers that are on the market.”
Electric Vehicle Council head of energy and infrastructure Alina Dini said Melbourne was poorly served by fast-charging infrastructure compared with Sydney, despite having more rapid adoption of EVs.
In capital cities, however, she said the charging network was generally keeping up with demand.
“We have had incredible growth in public charging infrastructure in the last couple of years, and I would say from our perspective that currently public charging meets demand in metro regions, mostly,” she said.
“It varies state by state, but generally, if you wanted to take your EV on a road trip, you would be able to do so, and with a little bit of planning, you should have no troubles with recharging.”
Rewiring Australia chief executive Francis Vierboom said the fuel crisis presented a moment of opportunity to government.
“March 2026 is a month when I think we’re going to look back at a permanent shift in the mindset that Australians have about the energy system that Australia should have,” he said.
“Electricity that we can make here cheaply and abundantly is the thing that we should be pushing towards, both for hitting our climate goals, but also as a national resilience strategy.”
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Bianca Hall is The Age’s environment and climate reporter, and has worked in a range of roles including as a senior writer, city editor, and in the federal politics bureau in Canberra.Connect via X, Facebook or email.
Bridie Smith is an education reporter at The Age. A former desk editor, she has also reported on science and consumer affairs.Connect via X, Facebook or email.