Shopping centres and office precincts will be fitted with more electric vehicles chargers in the "coming months" as part of a new deal with one of Australia's biggest developers.
Lendlease signed a partnership with Everty on Wednesday to roll out at least 80 electric car chargers in its properties around Australia, including popular shopping complexes in NSW, Queensland and Western Australia.
The deal will provide another boost to public car charging infrastructure after a series of recent private and public investments, and new financial incentives to buy electric vehicles.
Everty chief executive Carola Jonas said the company would assess Lendlease properties across the eastern states and Western Australia as part of the deal, and develop a timeline to roll out charging points.
The stations will be installed at shopping centres including Macarthur Square in NSW, Sunshine Plaza in Queensland and Lakeside Joondalup in Western Australia, as well as 16 office complexes including Barangaroo and Darling Square in Sydney and the Melbourne Quarter in Victoria.
Ms Jonas said the AC chargers would be designed to power up electric cars over the course of several hours and could play a vital role in ensuring future transport options.
"From what we're seeing in the Australian market, and overseas, cars will be charged where they're parked for a long time so the built environment plays a crucial role," she said.
"If cars are sitting in a park for eight hours, that's ample charging time."
Lendlease Australia investment managing director Vanessa Orth said the project would ensure its assets would meet the needs of future vehicles and achieve the company's goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.
"Customer demand for (electric) vehicles is on the rise and this initiative will future-proof our commercial and retail assets to ensure we have the appropriate electric car-charging infrastructure, with the ability to adapt the technology as required," she said.
Australia had more than 3600 public electric car chargers in more than 2100 locations by June this year, according to the Electric Vehicle Council.
But that figure is set to rise substantially, with the NSW government promising to install 500 charging points over two years, BP rolling out the first of 600 fast-charging points in the country, and a $39.8 million investment from the federal government in 117 fast-charging stations on Australian highways.
Ms Jonas said the investments were urgently needed as tax cuts and other rebates cut the price of electric cars, and more models became available in Australia.
"Now is the time where the EV market is going to grow a lot because we're seeing policy changes from the federal government and they will drive more cars into the country," she said.
"There will be a massive investment over the next two to three years in setting up the initial infrastructure."
