{"id":7245,"date":"2025-07-20T01:19:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T01:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/7245\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T01:19:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T01:19:08","slug":"was-rac-electric-highway-charging-project-ends-despite-rise-in-evs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/7245\/","title":{"rendered":"WA’s RAC electric-highway charging project ends despite rise in EVs"},"content":{"rendered":"

When West Australian car insurer RAC first launched its “electric highway” installing electric vehicle chargers in WA’s south-west<\/a>, it was the first network of its kind in Australia and opened regional travel to EV owners for the first time.<\/p>\n

Not that there were many of them.<\/p>\n

RAC general manager of external relations Will Golsby said there were about 80 electric cars in the state in 2015, when the highway first opened.<\/p>\n

In surveys the RAC conducted 10 years ago, people were interested in EVs, but the number one concern was “range anxiety<\/a>“, the fear that the vehicles would be unusable outside of Perth because there was nowhere to charge them.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Will Golsby says the RAC wanted to open WA to electric vehicles. (ABC News: Claire Moodie)<\/p>\n

“The original intent of the electric highways was really to open Western Australia up and enable people from Perth to travel through the south-west and allow our regional members with electric vehicles to travel to Perth,” Mr Golsby told Gary Adshead on ABC Radio Perth.<\/p>\n

Long queues and broken chargers leave EV drivers anxious<\/a><\/p>\n

Charger anxiety replaces range anxiety for the growing number of electric vehicle users relying on slow infrastructure.<\/p>\n

“We saw this as a demonstration project to encourage the uptake of electric vehicles.”<\/p>\n

In 10 years, the number of fully electric vehicles in WA has grown to about 27,000, and there are about 150 charging stations across the state.<\/p>\n

The state government has spent more than $43 million on subsidies to help people buy electric vehicles and committed $21 million to extending the charging network.<\/p>\n

The moment EVs became ‘unstoppable’<\/p>\n

Mr Golsby said that, having demonstrated that owning an electric vehicle was a viable option in WA, the RAC had decided to move on, withdrawing from its involvement in the electric highway.<\/p>\n

“We wanted to open up the state to EVs,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We believe there’s been significant growth. We hope there will be more growth in electric vehicles.”<\/p>\n

For Australian Electric Vehicle Association (AEVA) president Chris Jones, it is the end of an era in the evolution of electric transport in WA.<\/p>\n

\"Dr<\/p>\n

Chris Jones says the electric highway was a turning point for EV uptake in WA. (ABC Radio Perth: Emma Wynne)<\/p>\n

It was Dr Jones, along with two others, who first pitched the idea of building the charging network to the RAC 10 years ago.<\/p>\n

“It started because I was unemployed and looking for something to do. I wrote a 10-page document on how you would build charging in the south-west,” Dr Jones said.<\/p>\n

“We found the ideal spots and what the layout would look like, and we pitched it to anyone that would listen.”<\/p>\n

Many potential funders and government agencies said no, but the RAC took the idea seriously.<\/p>\n

“They came back and said: ‘You know what, this is absolutely something we should be supporting’, and they did,” Dr Jones said.<\/p>\n

“For me, it was the moment I knew EVs were unstoppable, when an organisation like the RAC was prepared to tip $1 million into it, even though there were only around 80 EVs on the road at the time.”<\/p>\n

Dr Jones said he was not surprised the highway project had now come to an end.<\/p>\n

Councils bow out<\/p>\n

The RAC purchased and installed electric-highway charging stations, but they were then owned and managed by local governments.<\/p>\n

“Councils weren’t prepared for what it took to look after this sort of equipment,” Dr Jones said.<\/p>\n

“You have to learn new skills, get familiar with new technology. You don’t make much money from it.”<\/p>\n

Chinese EV newcomer Xiaomi’s bumper sales<\/a><\/p>\n

The founder of Chinese electric vehicle maker Xiaomi says he is “astonished” by the reaction from customers.<\/p>\n

Some of those stations will continue to operate on the Chargefox network, while others will close down.<\/p>\n

In the popular south-west holiday spots of Busselton and Dunsborough, the council has decided not to continue running the charging stations.<\/p>\n

City of Busselton Mayor Phill Cronin acknowledged the charging station in Dunsborough was popular.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think there’s one time I’ve walked past and they’re not being utilised,” Cr Cronin said.<\/p>\n

However, he said the council had decided the charging station was not in a great location and the technology was becoming outdated.<\/p>\n

\"Transperth<\/p>\n

The RAC has invested in EV chargers over 10 years. (ABC News: Bill Lawrie)<\/p>\n

“It’s just not something we feel that we should be taking on,” he said, adding that a local shopping centre in Dunsborough had installed four fast charging stations in its car park, providing drivers with other options.<\/p>\n

In the case of the Busselton charging station, the council is inviting expressions of interest from businesses who would like to take over the charger.<\/p>\n

Workplace charging new frontier<\/p>\n

While it is the end of an era for electric driving in WA, the RAC said it had achieved what it set out to do.<\/p>\n

“It was Australia’s first. Other states now claim to have the bigger, larger, longer, wider highways, but certainly this was Australia’s first,” Mr Golsby said.<\/p>\n

“It’s something that we’re very proud of.”<\/p>\n

For AEVA, it was a major boost to its lobbying efforts in WA.<\/p>\n

“Buoyed by [the electric highway], we put the effort into lobbying the WA government into building a decent charging network around the state,” Dr Jones said.<\/p>\n

“I think the next effort we will need to see in public charging will be workplace charging.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When West Australian car insurer RAC first launched its “electric highway” installing electric vehicle chargers in WA’s south-west,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[9098,9097,64,63,99,9106,9101,9105,9099,9102,9103,9104,9100],"class_list":["post-7245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-720-perth","tag-abc-radio-perth","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-busslton-electric-vehicle-charger","tag-chris-jones","tag-dunsborough-electric-vehicle-charger","tag-electric-highway","tag-electric-vehicle-association","tag-electric-vehicle-charging-stations-wa","tag-rac","tag-will-golsby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}