Fully Charged Live puts the jolt back into motor shows

Fully Charged Live, a motor show featuring only electric motors at the International Convention Centre in Sydney, showed the enormous level of interest in EVs in Australia.

Stephen Corby

3 min read

12:21AMApril 01, 2023

2023 Tesla Model Y, one of the several EVs on display at Fully Charged Live. Photo: Mark Bean.

Have you ever forced yourself to go to a party that you knew, with a deep and depressing certainty, would be boring and painful, because you felt you had to?

Personally, every time I’ve been forced by some kind of social conscience to attend a gathering that featured the world’s least attractive Japanese word, “karaoke” (it means “empty orchestra”, which, frankly, would be far preferable to listen to) I have been filled with dread. I have come to believe I am allergic to bad singing, in fact, and I’ve never been wrong about how awful it will be.

Stephen Corby

Recently, however, I forced myself to attend another kind of event that I’ve never been a big fan of, and did so knowing, in my mind at least, that it would be a total bust – Fully Charged Live, a motor show featuring only electric motors at the International Convention Centre in Sydney.

The venue was a problem for a start, as I feared it would be so empty you’d be able to drive a small plane through it without injuring, or even alarming, anyone. Then there was the price of entry, which, at $60 a head, seemed ludicrously optimistic, and likely to shrink the potential crowd of people willing to come to a show featuring only electric vehicles, and people talking about them, even further.

Personally, I’ve never understood motor shows and I was less surprised, and far less upset, than many of my colleagues when they died out in this country. I like driving cars, but looking at them when they’re sitting still seems about as enticing as watching a television that’s not plugged in.

A star of Kia’s electric range, the EV6 GT, was one of many on display. Photo: Mark Bean

It was way back in 2009 that the last Australian International Motor Show was cancelled, reportedly due to poor attendance figures the year before. It was, I believe, actually greed that killed it, as the organisers tried to charge too much, both to the public and to the car companies for their extravagant stands.

Imagine my surprise, then, as – driven by my deep love of working and a sense of compulsion to attend applied liberally by several car companies – I turned up at Darling Harbour to find a queue of people wanting to hand over their $60 to get in.

My jaw fell even further once I got inside and found not only sizeable crowds milling around, but no fewer than three stages where panel talks were being staged, each of which was not only well attended, but in some cases oversubscribed.

As interests in EVs skyrocket, vehicles like Audi’s e-tron are becoming increasingly popular.

While there was one large and busy corner of the show that I was simply too frightened to approach – the Tesla Owners Club, which appeared to be populated by people with a strange madness in their eyes – I found the whole experience roughly 1000 per cent more enjoyable than I’d expected. These people – and Fully Charged Live reports that there were more than 15,000 of them over the two days – were hugely engaged, filled with questions and beyond keen to sit in, and kick the tyres of, all of the electric vehicles on display.

While the cheaper Chinese brands, MG and LDV, seemed to be making the biggest splash, by taking the most square metres of space, there was also plenty of interest in the Polestar stand and the various Kia EV6s, Hyundai Ioniq 5s, Audi e-trons, Nissan Leafs and, of course, Teslas around the place.

Polestar’s stand was making also making big impressions at the show.

The moment that stayed with me, however, and made me realise how much things have changed, was seeing a dad lead his thrilled-looking daughter around by the hand, as she proudly showed off her shiny Tesla baseball cap and collared shirt. The last time I’d been at an Australian motor show, that kid would have been covered in lurid HSV or FPV gear. Stylistically, at least, it’s a huge step forward.

Overall, though, the Fully Charged experience made it clear that, as much as some people might want to deny it, the level of interest in electric vehicles is even bigger than most of us can imagine.

Next year’s show, and there will be one, will no doubt be even better attended.

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Fully Charged Live puts the jolt back into motor shows

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