Electric vehicle sales in Australia hit a record in 2025. Over 180,000 new EVs were registered, representing roughly 16% of new car sales. That’s up from about 9% in 2024 and roughly 3% in 2022. The growth trajectory is clear, and it’s accelerating.

The charging infrastructure is not accelerating at the same rate. And that gap is starting to become a real problem, not just for potential EV buyers but for anyone thinking about the future of transport in this country.

The Numbers

As of early 2026, Australia has approximately 6,500 public charging locations, comprising around 18,000 individual charger outlets. That sounds like a lot until you compare it to the roughly 450,000 EVs now on Australian roads. The ratio of EVs to public chargers is roughly 25:1, which is well above the International Energy Agency’s recommended ratio of 10:1 for mature EV markets.

For context, Norway — the world leader in EV adoption — has a ratio of about 8:1. The Netherlands is around 5:1. The UK sits at approximately 12:1. Australia is falling behind, and the problem compounds as more EVs are sold each month.

The distribution of chargers is also uneven. Greater Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane have reasonable coverage. Regional and rural Australia has significant gaps. A road trip from Adelaide to Perth still requires careful planning around charging stops, and some stretches of highway in Queensland and Western Australia have no fast chargers for over 200 kilometres.

Fast Charging vs Slow Charging

Not all chargers are equal, and this distinction matters more than most coverage statistics acknowledge.

Slow chargers (AC, up to 22kW): These are the most common. They’re typically installed at shopping centres, workplaces, and council car parks. They add 20-40 kilometres of range per hour of charging. Fine if you’re parked for four hours. Useless if you need to charge quickly on a road trip.

Fast chargers (DC, 50-150kW): These can add 200-300 kilometres of range in 30-45 minutes. They’re essential for highway travel and for EV owners who don’t have home charging.

Ultra-fast chargers (DC, 150kW+): These can charge most EVs to 80% in 15-25 minutes. They’re the equivalent of pulling into a petrol station — you stop, charge, and go. There are fewer than 1,500 of these across Australia.

The ratio of fast-to-slow chargers tells a more concerning story than the raw numbers. About 70% of Australia’s public chargers are slow AC chargers. They’re cheaper to install and maintain, so businesses and councils default to them. But they don’t solve the biggest anxiety EV owners have: “what if I need to charge quickly and there’s nothing available?”

Who’s Building What

Several major networks are expanding across Australia:

Chargefox remains the largest network with over 3,200 chargers, including a growing number of ultra-fast sites along major highways. Their partnership with NRMA has accelerated rollout in New South Wales, and their reliability has improved significantly from the early days when broken chargers were a common complaint.

Tesla’s Supercharger network has opened to non-Tesla vehicles at many locations, which has been a significant addition to the overall infrastructure. Tesla’s chargers are generally reliable and well-maintained, though wait times at popular locations are becoming an issue as more non-Tesla EVs gain access.

Evie Networks has focused on regional charging, which is arguably where the need is greatest. Their strategy of placing fast chargers at regional service centres and towns fills gaps that the other networks have been slow to address.

AmpCharge (formerly BP Pulse) is leveraging existing petrol station locations to add EV charging. This makes sense logistically — the sites already have amenities, parking, and power connections — but the rollout has been slower than initially promised.

Shell Recharge has taken a similar approach, adding chargers at Shell service stations. The progress has been modest compared to announcements.

The Home Charging Advantage (and Its Limitations)

About 80% of EV charging in Australia happens at home. If you have a house with a garage or driveway, you can install a Level 2 charger for $1,500-$3,000 and charge overnight using off-peak electricity. This is by far the cheapest and most convenient way to charge, and it’s a genuine advantage over petrol vehicles — you wake up every morning with a “full tank.”

But not everyone has a house. Australia’s increasing apartment and townhouse density creates a significant access problem. Strata buildings are notoriously slow to approve charger installations, and the electrical infrastructure in many older apartment blocks can’t support multiple EV chargers without expensive upgrades.

The Electric Vehicle Council estimates that around 30% of Australian car owners live in apartments or rental properties where home charging is difficult or impossible. For these people, public charging isn’t a convenience — it’s a necessity. And the current public network isn’t adequate to serve them.

What Needs to Change

Government investment needs to accelerate. The federal government’s National Electric Vehicle Strategy committed $500 million to charging infrastructure, but the money has been slow to flow. State governments have been more active — NSW, Victoria, and Queensland all have their own charging infrastructure programs — but coordination between state and federal efforts has been poor.

Reliability must improve. A charger that’s installed but broken is worse than no charger at all, because it means someone drove out of their way to find it. Industry data suggests that about 15-20% of public chargers are out of service at any given time. That failure rate would be unacceptable for petrol stations and should be unacceptable for EV chargers.

Pricing needs transparency. The cost of public charging varies wildly — from $0.30/kWh at some AC chargers to over $0.85/kWh at some ultra-fast DC chargers. There’s no standardisation, and pricing isn’t always displayed before you plug in. Compared to the relative uniformity of petrol pricing (and the mandatory price board at every servo), EV charging pricing feels chaotic.

Strata reform is essential. Making it easier for apartment residents to install chargers requires changes to strata legislation. Some states have moved on this — NSW introduced right-to-charge legislation in 2025 — but progress is uneven.

The Bottom Line

Australia’s EV charging infrastructure is not where it needs to be. It’s growing, but not fast enough to match the pace of EV sales. The gaps are most pronounced in regional areas, apartment buildings, and fast-charging availability.

For people with houses and garages who do most of their driving around the city, the charging experience is already excellent. For everyone else, it’s a work in progress. And “work in progress” isn’t a great selling point when you’re asking people to spend $50,000 or more on a new car.

The infrastructure will get there eventually. The economics are too compelling for it not to. But in the meantime, the gap between EV sales growth and charging infrastructure growth is the single biggest obstacle to mass EV adoption in Australia.