By Nick Toscano
Fuel supplier Ampol is falling short of its target to roll out 300 electric vehicle charging bays across the country, pointing to delays in securing enough connections to the grid and a slowdown in Australians switching to electric cars.
Ampol, which operates 1800 service stations nationally and Brisbane’s Lytton oil refinery, on Monday said it was making progress expanding its network of on-the-go electric charging infrastructure to cater for the growing number of motorists buying electric vehicles, with 92 charging bays now at 41 locations.
Ampol has 92 charging bays across Australia, well down on its initial goal of 300 for this year.Credit: Oscar Colman
It originally had a goal of installing 300 charging bays at petrol stations and large shopping centres by this year, but chief executive Matt Halliday told investors the rollout had been “slower than we expected”.
This, he said, was partly due to difficulties obtaining access to power lines in a congested grid that was struggling to cope with the build-out of more renewable energy and heavier demand.
“We started the year with 82 bays in Australia, we currently have 92, but we have 36 bays awaiting power,” Halliday said.
The pace of the nation’s transition from petrol and diesel vehicles to electric models was also called out as a factor.
After years of sluggish growth, electric vehicles sales have increased to 8 per cent of Australia’s new car market. However, the adoption of fully battery-electric vehicles started to slow yet again this year in line with global trends, which has been attributed to inflation and cost-of-living pressures.
“Uptake of electric vehicles has stabilised … probably given the economic environment,” Halliday said.
But he stressed that Ampol intended to press ahead with its charging network plans and “ramp up” the rollout in the second half of the year, as more bays were connected to electricity supply.
Halliday’s comments come as Australian governments and fuel suppliers have begun investing heavily in supporting the greater development of electric car-charging infrastructure to combat motorists’ fear of being stranded and unable to recharge, that’s referred to as “range anxiety” and often cited as a barrier to a greater uptake of emissions-free vehicles.
Ampol chief executive Matt Halliday with electric vehicle chargers in Sydney last week.Credit: Louie Douvis
Despite posting significant sales growth, electric vehicles remain a small proportion of Australia’s overall vehicle fleet, accounting for just 0.9 per cent of old and new passenger vehicles on the road. Ampol on Monday said it expected fuel demand to remain robust “well into the 2030s”.
The update on Ampol’s electric car charger plans comes as the ASX-listed company reported a 39 per cent drop (year-on-year) in underlying net profit after tax for the six months to June 30, from $329 million to $233 million, missing analysts’ forecasts. It also lowered its interim dividend by about a third, to 60¢ a share.
“Paying out an interim dividend from the midpoint of policy was weaker than expectations,” UBS analyst Tom Allen said.
Earnings from Ampol’s Lytton refinery – one of just two refineries left in Australia after the COVID-19 lockdowns wiped out fuel demand and forced others to close – fell 11 per cent in the half to $89.5 million on an underlying basis. Production from the refinery, which processes crude oil into transport fuels, was 5.8 per cent lower due to a plant-wide outage and delays in the supply of catalyst due to disruptions in the Red Sea.
Ampol’s convenience retail earnings for the first half rose 4.7 per cent to $175 million, compared to a year earlier, the company said.
Shares in Ampol fell more than 4 per cent on Monday to their lowest levels since October 2023.
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