Supported by more than $12 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), JET Charge says the new initiative bundles all necessary electric vehicle (EV) charging products, technologies and services into a subsidised solution that is cheaper than refuelling a commercial car fleet with petrol.
The company’s Charging as a Service works on a subscription model with no upfront installation costs for businesses, who can install the hardware and technologies at both their commercial premises and employee’s homes. JET Charge describes the solution as a “fuel-card-like experience” that is inclusive of installation, repairs and ongoing reporting.
The initiative has been supported by the government, via ARENA, because it says the approach will accelerate the electrification of Australia’s transport fleets which account for 50% of new vehicle sales in Australia.
“Greater uptake among fleets will help grow a second-hand market and help get more Australians behind the wheel of an EV,” the statement from Chris Bowen, Australia’s Minister for Climate Change and Energy, said. Bowen attended the JET Charge launch on Wednesday in Port Melbourne alongside ARENA CEO Darren Miller.
The project is expected to help drive the uptake of more than 3,100 EVs over the next three years, according to Bowen.
Image: JET Charge
While Australia has lagged in its uptake of electric vehicles, Bowen noted that EV’s have now jumped from 2% of new car sales in May 2022 to almost 9% today.
In order to access JET Charge’s subsidised Charging as a Service offer, participants
- must be an Australian business fleet operator.
- must consent to JET Charge gathering charging activity data.
- must consent to any data gathered being shared in anonymised form as part of project reporting.
- each subsidised charger must be aligned to a unique electric vehicle.
While details on the cost of the “full service” monthly JET Charge subscription are not provided, Bowen’s media release notes that petrol vehicle cost around $2,400 per year to drive on average, indicating something in this ballpark.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.