EV charging support in Australia
Last month we brought you news of MG Motor India’s ambition to support the essential roll-out of EV charging infrastructure – what the company calls ‘1,000 chargers in 1,000 days’; we also made reference to a similar Australian initiative. The New South Wales (NSW) Government announced a bold initiative to introduce up to 3,500 electric vehicle (EV) chargers across regional NSW, with the NSW State Government offering $20 million in grants to establish what could swiftly become Australia’s largest ‘destination charging network’. The idea behind this ‘NSW Electric Vehicle Strategy’ is to increase EV sales in the region to 52 per cent of all new car sales by 2030-2031, and then the vast majority by 2035.
The grants process has been set up in order provide regional councils 75 per cent of the funds for up to four alternating current destination chargers, as well as the costs of installation. Latching onto this initiative, MG Motor Australia announced in May they will cover the difference in cost for successful applicants of the grant who’ve purchased an ‘MG ChargeHub’ – this essentially makes the MG EV ChargeHub free for eligible regional sites in NSW. The idea then is to install EV chargers at places like motels, wineries, cafés, restaurants, natural attractions, and museums, with the NSW Government grant covering 75% towards buying up to four alternating current (AC) destination chargers per site location, with MG Motor Australia agreeing to cover the remaining 25% if a MG EV ChargeHub is purchased and the grant is successfully approved.
Peter Cao, CEO for MG Motor Australia and New Zealand, said that ‘when we launched the MG ZS EV in late 2020, we offered the model at a price that delivered great value to customers. This has, in turn, changed the conversation about pricing of electric vehicles in Australia. We have achieved our ambition of delivering value and driving discussion. Now, we take the next step by supplying charging hardware that can be used by many electric vehicle owners in Australia.’
MG Motor Australia & New Zealand are supporting an initiative by the NSW Government aimed at boosting EV charging at destinations such as restaurants and cafés; this is in addition to a separate scheme we reported on in a previous issue that was aimed solely at hotels. The photos here show Pete Campbell, runner up in the 2021 round of Australian MasterChef TV show, demonstrating the four-terminal ‘MG ChargeHub’ being offered by MG to eligible businesses in the state.