If you need to find a public EV charger in Canberra - and one that works - then in the next few months, the best place to look will be in the parliamentary precinct.
Ten new public electric vehicle chargers have been installed - although not yet switched on - in the underground public garage at Parliament House.
A further 48 will be installed across the precinct. However, mystery surrounds the locations because ActewAGL is bound by "confidentiality terms with the Commonwealth" not to reveal them. Never have public EV charging locales been such a closely guarded secret.
Under a previous commitment by the Federal department of finance, all 58 earmarked for the precinct will be available to the public and operate under a relatively new charging software system called exploren, which will require EV owners to install yet another network app on their phone, as well as surrender their credit card details.
The availability of EV charging and the reliability of the existing network, at a time when the ACT has the fastest per capita adoption rate of EVs in Australia, has become a hotbed topic of discussion among EV owners.
The rapid federal precinct rollout, too, is quarantined from the slower ACT government one.
The ACT Government has committed to providing "at least" 180 public chargers by 2025 under its $1.4 million Public EV Charging Infrastructure Fund launched last year.
ACT City Services states on its website that "it is estimated that at least 580, and up to 1000, electric vehicle chargers will need to be publicly accessible to meet the needs of ACT drivers by 2030".
The sudden arrival of dozens of EV chargers into the parliamentary precinct comes at a time when the Federal climate change and energy minister Chris Bowen and a raft of other federal MPs have flipped their lease cars to zero emission vehicles.
Minister Bowen drives a white Tesla Model 3 - and loves it. But equally he also needs an ACT recharge to get back to his McMahon electorate in western Sydney.
And even more crucially, the biggest mover of parliamentarians in the ACT, Commonwealth fleet operator Comcar, has also flipped to EVs and the black-suited drivers will be hunting for electrons all around the territory - but mostly around the precinct where they record the bulk of their sitting-day business.
Comcar is fast transitioning to electric BMW iX40 and iX50 (longer range) SUVs.
Under the previous Liberal National Party, Comcar ran a fleet of 92 BMW 6-series SUV turbo-diesels and 45 Camry hybrids. The SG Fleet leases began expiring on these cars in February this year.
Back in May when the new BMW deal was announced, the Department of Finance said "the introduction of EVs into the Comcar fleet will initially cost more than that of equivalent ICE [internal combustion engine] vehicles, [however] savings in the running costs, including fuel and maintenance are expected".
"Comcar is introducing EV charging capability in each of its state depots to support the operation of the new EV fleet and to avoid adding additional pressure on public EV charging infrastructure," it said.
The Powering Australia plan commits the Federal government to transition 75 per cent of Commonwealth vehicles - which is around 10,000 vehicles of various types, including a huge number used by Defence - to low or zero emissions vehicles by 2025. The Comcar shift will happen much faster than that.
"It is expected that the new [Comcar] fleet will be fully implemented by mid-2024," the Department of Finance said in a statement.
