One-off grants should be handed to apartment buildings to cover the cost of assessing how electric vehicle chargers can be installed to support the take up of zero-emission cars, an Assembly committee has said.
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"Installation and retrofitting of charging facilities at apartment and multi-unit dwellings will be essential in ensuring that there is appropriate residential infrastructure to support a greater uptake of EVs," the committee said.
But the committee also warned current incentives to drive electric vehicle take up favoured people with higher incomes.
"In order for the ACT to achieve its net zero emissions targets, the government should support everyone in the community, especially those of low socioeconomic backgrounds," the committee said.
The government was also warned to consider whether distance charges would disincentive electric vehicle take up before they choose to charge motorists by the number of kilometres travelled.
The inquiry has recommend the government release advice that shows how Canberra's electricity grid is expected to cope with the increased demand as motorists switch from filling up at the bowser to plugging into a powerpoint.
The report was tabled in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday and included a recommendation that ACT firefighters receive specialised training to respond to electric vehicle-related fires. Battery and charging fires can pose serious risks and be difficult to extinguish.
The government should also keep working with the grid operator, Evoenergy, to ensure the network will cope with the increased demand and constraints are lessened as more Canberrans buy electric vehicles.
Public chargers also need to be spaced across the ACT fairly and providers should be required to sign up to service and maintenance guarantees. Charges should also be accessible for people with disabilities.
Kerbside chargers for electric vehicles in areas where residents do not have access to off-street parking would also boost public and private charging access, the government was told.
A cost-benefit analysis should be produced by the government to demonstrate to property owners how much their property value could increase if they install electric vehicle charging infrastructure, the inquiry recommended.
Unit title management laws need to be reviewed to ensure they meet the needs of body corporates managing and installing charging infrastructure.
The government should consider encouraging Tesla, the electric vehicle maker, to install a charging site in the territory as part of its supercharger network being extended to non-Tesla vehicles.
The Assembly's standing committee on planning, transport and city services, which launched the electric vehicle adoption inquiry in May 2022, also recommended the government consider further whether the take up of electric cars would support a reduction to individual car dependency.
Shorter leases on electric cars in the government fleet should also be considered to determine whether this could boost the supply of second-hand electric cars in Canberra.
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The committee made 30 recommendations, including calling on the government to consider whether more hydrogen refuelling locations were needed in the territory or surrounding areas to support electric vehicle take up across the private and freight fleets.
The committee also recommended including e-bicycles, e-tricycles and electric motorbikes in the sustainable household scheme, which offers interest-free loans for eligible Canberrans to take up lower-emissions technology.
The issue has been a long-running sore point between Labor and the Greens. The Greens' Jo Clay has repeatedly called for the scheme to cover e-bicycles, but Chief Minister Andrew Barr has said the cost of administering a loan for an e-bike was too high.
"Access to capital is not a major barrier to purchasing an e-bike. You can buy an e-bike for less than $1000, and you can certainly buy a wide range of e-bikes for between $1000 and $2000, all of which falls below the minimum loan amount of the scheme," Mr Barr said in February 2022.
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
