EV boom puts pressure on WA charging infrastructure

With the news that sales of electric vehicles overtook petrol-powered cars for the first time last month, a new report has revealed that charging infrastructure is not keeping up with demand – and WA was worst off.

Among total August sales including diesel, hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles, EVs made up almost a quarter of all new vehicle sales.

Driven by soaring fuel prices, more than 100,000 EVs were sold in Australia in the first six months of 2026, taking the total number on our roads past 500,000 for the first time.

While most EV charging occurs at home, public charging infrastructure remains important, in particular for long-distance travel and drivers without access to off-street parking.

New research into Australia’s EV infrastructure, released this week, shows infrastructure was already under pressure before the spike, with an average of 24 EVs for every public charger across the nation in 2025.

Western Australia and Tasmania lagged behind the eastern states, with New South Wales and Victoria accounting for more than half of all chargers.

This study was done by Dutch mapping data firm Here Technologies, which has done similar research in North America, the United Kingdom, Europe and India.

“NSW was the most well-prepared state with high scores across each category, followed by the ACT and Victoria,” according to the research.

“WA came in last, with poor marks for the power of its chargers and distance between them. Tasmania was second last, with a lower EV adoption rate.”

Chargers are now under more pressure than the report indicated, given the research was conducted in 2025.

Sales of EVs in 2026 are up by more than 170 per cent year-on-year reaching 27,083 registrations in August and overtaking petrol-powered vehicles for the first time, which had 25,824 registrations.

In fact, electrified vehicles (including hybrids and plug-in hybrids and full EVs) now make up more than half of new vehicle sales in Australia.

The petrol-bowser-to-vehicle ratio is 500 to one, but filling a petrol tank only takes a few minutes, while data released by EV charge network, Evie, states that Australians who use public chargers generally spend between 15 and 45 minutes charging their vehicles.

Exacerbating the strain in rural Australia has been the collapse of EV charging firm, Tritium. A key supplier and maintainer of the infrastructure, it collapsed in 2024, meaning essential spare parts are reportedly difficult to find and many sites are languishing as a result.

However, the government has previously offered grants to assist with the installation of public fast chargers at EV dealers and repairers.

Applications for this grant are now closed, however there are still opportunities available to dealers and repairers which want to apply for rebates to have chargers installed on their premises to assist in the servicing of EVs.

That program offers rebates to allow EV dealers, repairers and mechanics to:

1. Claim up to $3000 per EV charging plug or portable DC EV charger, capped at $21,000 per site

2. Claim 80 per cent of the total cost of EV-specific workshop tools and equipment, up to a total of $50,000 per site.

Initiatives by other state and federal authorities should partially address the shortage of EV chargers in Australia.

Action by the WA Government will also be important to ensure charging infrastructure keeps pace with growing EV adoption and meets the needs of drivers across the State.