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The road ahead for electric vehicle uptake in Canberra looks like an interesting journey under the ACT Government’s new Zero Emissions Vehicles Strategy.

Transport currently accounts for more than 64% of emissions in the Territory, with 70% of these emissions attributable to private vehicle use. Light vehicles make up 95% of the ACT fleet.

Currently, around 2,000 electric cars are registered in the ACT – a big jump from the 446 registered in 2020; but still a small fraction of the 320,805 registered light vehicles in the Territory.

To reach its goal of net zero emissions by 2045, the ACT Government wants more zero emissions vehicles (ZEVs) on Canberra’s roads, faster. Yesterday it released a strategy for achieving 80-90% of new light vehicles sales in the Territory being ZEVs by the end of this decade.

Among the actions in the Strategy:

A formal ICE phase-out is a biggie and the ACT Government says it would be preferable for such a policy to adopted nationally. It will advocate for this with Federal, state and territory governments; noting its timing is consistent with a range of target phase-out dates set in the EU, Canada, the UK and some US states. Regardless of a formal phase-out, the ACT Government expects ZEV sales for new standard light vehicles will be close to 100% in the Territory by 2035.

Commenting on the Strategy, ACT Chief Minister and Minister for Climate Action Andrew Barr said:

“It’s important now for Australian jurisdictions to start preparing for a future private vehicle market that is predominantly ZEV. ZEVs are cheaper to run, more sustainable and easier to service. They are the vehicle of the future and we want to make sure that more Canberrans can access the benefits of ZEV ownership.”

The ACT’s Zero Emissions Vehicles Strategy 2022 – 30 can be viewed in full here.

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Michael caught the solar power bug after purchasing components to cobble together a small off-grid PV system in 2008. He's been reporting on Australian and international solar energy news ever since.

Regarding EV charging infrastructure in apartment buildings, do most have the capacity to be so kitted out? I recently saw a claim allegedly by an electrician that some (many?) apartment buildings are designed with no spare power capacity so only a handful of EV chargers can be added. He also pointed out such buildings don’t have public carparks, only private ones allocated to each apartment. Which tenant\owner gets the charger?

On a completely different note, elsewhere I saw an electrical engineer who built his own offgrid system, eats his own beef and seems to be some sort of post-grad genius cross rancher type, point out that it will require 4x as much electricity to charge a household’s cars as is used on AC. Does that capacity actually exist? Can the ACT generate that power? And if it has to rely on imports, how will the grid cope? For that matter, can the local grid cope with a 4x standard AC use spike in demand?

I don’t think anyone will object to the ACT volunteering to be guinea pigs and demonstrating to the rest of Australia whether or not a pure EV city is possible, let alone affordable. The question is whether the transition will convince others of its viability, or demonstrate that it simply isn’t viable on a national level.

Electric cars can generally be charged when people want. They are very different from air conditioners, which all tend to be turned on at the same time. Provided there is a financial incentive to charge when electricity is cheap — which there is — they won’t all be charged at peak times. Because they have the potential to supply energy to homes and grids they can be a useful grid asset for moderating supply and demand.

Ronald, can they really though? If folk are driving to work, or to the station to get to work, then the car is away from home say 7-6, perhaps 5-4 if doing tradie hours. Only once the car is home again will it be at getting recharged – typically overnight when there’s no solar.

Peak electricity hours are 3-9 weekdays or some subset thereof. Isn’t that also when folk are likely to be recharging their EVs?

Okay yes if you are a CEO, executive, or senior manager with your very own personal carpark then sure you can doubtless plug in and recharge your EV whilst at work, but most folk don’t have that option – many, perhaps even most, have to park on whatever grass strip, curbside park, or open air parking is available. For that to change would require a lot of money and who would foot that bill?

“Peak electricity hours are 3-9 weekdays or some subset thereof. Isn’t that also when folk are likely to be recharging their EVs?”

Maybe, but it doesn’t have to be – it is very easy for people to charge during the off-peak period when the grid is not stressed at all. Put the car on charge just before going to bed, say 9-10pm, & unplug it when you leave for work in the morning, say 5-7am. A TOU tariff with very cheap off-peak charges would provide all the incentive needed.

A large proportion of cars could be charged during that time without any upgrade to the grid at all.

“Peak electricity hours are 3-9 weekdays or some subset thereof. Isn’t that also when folk are likely to be recharging their EVs?”

I can’t imagine too many people will voluntarily pay an order of magnitude more to fill the car. There’s a new vicious fuel price cycle happening with EVs. It’s daily and it makes the current petrol retailers seem charitable.

Remember, there are lots who work from home at least one day. And if your weekend is already ruined, you may as well charge the car then.

In Qld, you can only connect your big charger to a controlled load anyway.

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