AEVA-NT rejoices as Australia reaches milestone moment of 1000 EV fast chargers nationwide

Dotted along the Stuart Highway, a series of new fast chargers on the Territory’s arterial road may have just helped the nation crack an important milestone. Find out how.

New remote EV Fast chargers in the Northern Territory. Australia hit 1000 EV fast chargers in 2024.

New electric vehicle fast chargers in the Red Centre may have been the tipping point to Australia cracking a fast charger milestone – according to one peak body for the vehicles – who says they’ll make driving safer for EV owners.

At the end of June, the Australian Electric Vehicle Association said that Australia had cracked the milestone of 1000 EV fast chargers nationwide.

President of AEVA Chris Jones said more EV charging bays nationwide improves the user experience by reducing queues.

“Australia has a pretty good coverage of fast chargers now, from Broadmeadows to Broome and almost everywhere in between,” he said.

The “everywhere in between” now includes locations along the Stuart Highway in the Red Centre, with Threeways, Alice Springs and Tennant Creek now all home to fast chargers, according to AEVA-NT vice-president Hunter Murray.

“(The) ultimate game is to have one every 100 kilometres,” he said.

Left: The amount of EV chargers in the Northern Territory. Right: new Red Centre EV fast chargers.

“Say you’re doing, you know, 700 km a day, you’re going to have to stop at least once or twice for fuel, in this case, electricity.

“You want to make those stops the minimum. So if you’ve got a fast charger there, you can keep that stop down to maybe 20-30 minutes – enough to go for a toilet break, go and get some food, give the legs a stretch.”

But the prevalence of fast chargers in the Territory also has another purpose to Mr Murray: keeping drivers safe from fatigue.

“Keeping that legality of a two hour break in mind – just getting that break every couple of hours from driving, which is sensible,” he said.

Mr Murray helped test the new charging stations in the Red Centre, and when asked if the new Red Centre chargers helped push the milestone, he said he couldn’t “confirm or deny”.

“I’m not that higher up in the wages,” he said with laugh.

“I'm not too sure whether the actual, the one in particular was these guys (the new Red Centre fast chargers), but they’ll certainly around the same time.”