FAQs

Council is supportive of the EV transition for the many benefits EV's provide as outlined in Council's EV Charging on Public Land Policy. Council is of the opinion that these installations are in the public interest, are safe, sustainable and will be long-term community assets.

The NRMA has been selected by DCCEEW under the round 3 destination charging grants in a competitive process to receive funding of $100,000 to support installation of infrastructure at each of the proposed locations. DC Fast Charging infrastructure is expensive to install and requires certainty of return on investment. These grants from state government, in line with the state government EV strategy, provide seed funding to drive the EV transition at an accelerated rate.

Council is primarily focused on supporting DC Fast Charging in the 50-200kW range (“Destination Charging”). This level of infrastructure generally sits in the 20–60min charge time window and is considered the best compromise between infrastructure cost, convenience for motorists, tourism, and local businesses support.

EV's currently represent ~1-2% of passenger vehicles on NSW roads with that number increasing year-on-year. Data shows that EV owners generally charge at home, work or overnight accommodation at a rate of around 80-90%. Therefore of the ~1-2% of vehicles parked in Council carparks, ~20% of those vehicles will seek public charging on a given day. Given this data, Council's process for internal approval is to assume the spaces proposed for EV charging would already be occupied by an EV looking to charge within the immediate precinct. In addition, Council aims to minimise the net loss of parking due to EV charging installations, with only a single space loss in each proposal as a result of accommodating accessibility requirements.  

In NSW, under the NSW Road Rules (Road Transport Act 2013) it is an offence for a driver of a non EV to stop in a parking area for electric powered vehicles, a rule inserted by amendment in November 2022. As such these rules are enforceable by the NSW Police Force and Authorised Council Officers under delegated authority.

Similarly and under the same legislation, it is also an offence for an EV to stop in a charging space when not actively charging. Once charging has finished, NRMA will apply idle fees after 10 minutes at a rate of $1 per minute. This ensures fast turnover to allow maximum usage of charging infrastructure.

EV Chargers are electrical equipment, built to recognised Australian and international standards. All EV chargers carry appropriate RCM (Regulatory Compliance Mark) which demonstrates the equipment compiles with Australian regulators requirements for sale and use. Australian organisation, EV FireSafe (evfiresafe.com) have not identified any fire risk with EV Chargers. Their research shows minimal fire risk with EV's (around 20 times less than ICE vehicles). Fire risk is largely with Light EV's such as scooters, e-bikes etc.  

The specific chargers being installed are Sinexcel SEC80 80kW DC Fast Chargers.