# EV Charging in Australia: Public Networks vs Home Charging * includes PHEVs; source: Electric Vehicle Council, Jan 2026. ___ #### 01 / The Cost Gap ## Bottom line up front For the ~93% of Australian EV owners who can charge at home, this isn't a fair fight. Home charging on a dedicated EV tariff costs roughly **4.5–8c/kWh** (and near-zero with rooftop solar), versus **48–99c/kWh** at a public DC fast charger. That **6–20x cost gap** means the two models are **mostly complementary, not competitive**: home charging is the default that delivers ~70–85% of all energy, while public networks own the journeys home charging can't — road trips and the no-driveway minority. The real strategic contest is less "public vs home" and more **who owns the EV customer**: fuel majors and motoring clubs building charging networks, versus electricity retailers turning the home, and soon the car battery itself, into a managed grid asset. 6–20x
The cost gap between home charging and a public DC fast charger --- #### 02 / Head to Head ## The core comparison | Dimension | 🔌 Public charging networks | 🏠 Home charging (via energy retailers) | | ---------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Representative players | Tesla Supercharger, Chargefox, Evie, NRMA, bp pulse, Ampol AmpCharge, JOLT | AGL, Origin, EnergyAustralia, Amber, OVO, GloBird, Red Energy | | Energy price | ~48–99c/kWh DC fast (Tesla ~48c member; casual 59–75c; remote up to 99c). JOLT: first 7 kWh/day free | 4.5–8c/kWh on dedicated EV windows; ~0c with solar; ~29–32c if on a standard flat rate | | Speed | 25–350+ kW DC → 10–60 min | 2–7 kW (single-phase) to 22 kW (3-phase) → overnight "wake up full" | | Upfront cost to driver | None (pay-per-use); optional membership ($9.99/mo Tesla non-owner; club fees) | Wallbox + install ~$1,000–2,500; needs off-street parking + suitable switchboard | | Convenience | Essential for travel/top-ups, but ~5–13% can be offline; queues at peak | Zero detour, plug in at home; the default for ~70–85% of energy delivered | | Best-fit use cases | Long-distance/road trips; renters & apartment dwellers; fleets; emergency top-up | Daily commuting; overnight; solar self-consumption; anyone with a driveway | | Revenue model | Pay-per-kWh + subscriptions/[idle fees](/posts/how-idle-and-congestion-fees-are-shaping-ev-charging-etiquette/); forecourt convenience; ads (JOLT); club loyalty | Electricity margin + customer retention; VPP/demand response; future V2G value-stacking | | Grid/smart angle | Site-level load management; some ToU pricing; battery-buffered remote sites | Smart scheduling, "solar soak", VPP, emerging V2G — turns the EV into a grid/home asset | | Ownership backdrop | Fuel majors (Ampol, bp), motoring clubs (Chargefox, NRMA), Tesla, infra investors (Evie) | Big-3 gentailers (AGL, Origin, EnergyAustralia) + tech-led challengers (Amber, OVO, GloBird) | --- #### 03 / Market context ## Why the structure looks this way * **Adoption is broadening, not exploding.** Combined EVs hit **13.1% of new-car sales in 2025** (up from 9.6% in 2024), with a December 2025 monthly peak of 16.7%. But the growth is increasingly **PHEV-led** (+131% in 2025) while BEV share crept up only ~1 percentage point. Total fleet: **454,000+ vehicles** (Electric Vehicle Council, Jan 2026). * **Home is overwhelmingly where charging happens.** ~**93% of current EV owners can charge at home**, and ~70–85% do most of their charging there (Evenergi/AER; EVC/ITLS 2025). Early adopters skew toward detached homes with driveways — and **~80% of home-chargers also have rooftop solar**, making their marginal charging cost close to zero. * **The "no driveway" segment is the structural growth engine for public charging.** ~6 million Australians live in strata; an estimated **25,000 EV owners already have no off-street parking, growing ~1,000/month**. As EVs move from early adopters to the mainstream, this renter/apartment cohort grows, and they *can't* access cheap home tariffs. * **Public infrastructure is scaling but patchy.** 1,310+ DC fast-charge sites and 3,436+ DC plugs, growing ~8.5% per quarter. Reliability is the persistent weak point: **up to ~13% of public chargers can be unavailable** at any time, dogged by first-generation Tritium hardware failures. Tesla is the outlier at ~99.5% uptime. --- #### 04 / The Public Networks ## A crowded field, consolidating A crowded, capital-hungry field consolidating around a few models: | Network | Owner & model | Footprint (2025–26) | Speeds | Indicative price | | ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Tesla Supercharger | Tesla; vertically integrated | 152 sites / 817 plugs; ~72% open to non-Tesla | 125–250 kW | ~48c/kWh median (member); up to 85c non-member peak; $9.99/mo non-Tesla membership; ~99.5% uptime | | Chargefox | Motoring clubs (NRMA, RACV, RACQ, RAA, RAC, RACT) | ~400+ DC locations (largest) | 50–350 kW | ~45–68c/kWh; club members save 10–20c | | Evie Networks | StB Capital (Trevor St Baker) + RACQ | 300+ locations, 1,000+ plugs | 50–400 kW | 49c member / 59c non-member; up to 75c ultra-fast | | NRMA Electric | NRMA (mutual); $78.6m federal co-funded | 100+ highway locations, national | 50–150 kW+ | 69c standard; 75–99c remote; 5c member discount | | [bp pulse](/posts/bp-pulse/) | bp plc; forecourt | 220+ charge points | 75 kW (upgradeable to 150) | ToU, app-only (~50–60c); AGL customers −6c | | Ampol AmpCharge | Ampol; forecourt | 73 sites / 208 sockets | 50–180 kW | ~75c/kWh flat | | JOLT | Ad-supported kerbside | 4 major cities (urban) | 25→50 kW | First 7 kWh/day free, then ~46c/kWh | *Also notable:* **Exploren** (Intellihub-backed B2B platform / "network of networks," absorbed ENGIE's ~200 ANZ chargers in 2025) and **Tritium** — the Brisbane hardware maker whose collapse and gen-1 reliability problems are a live drag on network uptime. Prices are rising across the board as operators chase utilisation-driven economics. The field is splitting into highway DC (Tesla, Chargefox, Evie, NRMA), forecourt (bp, Ampol), and urban kerbside (JOLT, [EVX](/posts/evx-power-pole-charger/), AGL) lanes. Reliability and price opacity remain the reputational weak points — bp and Ampol are app-only, and Australia still lacks UK-style mandatory uptime penalties. --- #### 05 / Home Charging & The Free-Window Revolution ## The price war moved to the middle of the day Retailers are giving away the midday "solar soak" — there's now so much rooftop solar that wholesale prices routinely hit zero or go negative around noon. Free electricity has quietly become a customer-acquisition weapon. #### Genuinely free (0c/kWh) home windows |PLAN | FREE BLOCK | DAYS | STATES | | -------------------- | ---------------------- | -------------------- | -------------------- | | OVO "Free 3" | 11am–2pm (3 hrs) | Daily | VIC, NSW, QLD, SA | | Powershop "EV Day" | 12–2pm (2 hrs) | Daily | VIC, NSW, SA, SE QLD | | Red Energy "Red EV Saver" | 12–2pm (2 hrs) | Weekends only | NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, ACT | | GloBird "Free Lunch" REPORTED | 12–2pm | Daily | verify directly | | ActewAGL evEnergy | 12–2pm | Weekends | ACT | | Solar Sharer Offer FROM 1 JUL 2026 | 3 hrs, up to 24 kWh | Daily | NSW, SE QLD, SA (mandated) | #### Near-free overnight windows (cheap, not free) | Retailer | EV-window rate | When | Notes | | -------------------- | ---------------------- | -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | OVO Energy | ~4.5c/kWh | Overnight (~12–6am) | Cheapest fixed EV window; multi-state | | GloBird (EASYEV) | 6c/kWh | Overnight + 11am–2pm | Only dual night + "solar-soak" daytime window | | Powershop EV Night | ~5c | overnight | companion to EV Day| | EnergyAustralia | 7c/kWh | EV window | NSW only | | AGL | 8c/kWh | Fixed EV window | Cross-promo: −6c/kWh at public bp pulse chargers (time-limited) | | Origin (EV Power Up) | ~8c/kWh | App-scheduled | Smart-charges into solar/overnight price troughs automatically | | Amber | Wholesale pass-through | Dynamic | Near-zero/negative on good days; SmartShift automation; V2G pilot leader | | Red Energy / Engie | EV add-on / credit | Off-peak | Engie offers a $100 Chargefox sign-up credit | Reference points: a standard flat usage rate is ~29–32c/kWh; standard time-of-use off-peak is ~10–20c. So a dedicated EV plan typically halves or better even the off-peak rate — and solar self-consumption beats all of it. Policy spotlight · The July Change THE SOLAR SHARER OFFER (SSO) **From 1 July 2026**, every retailer in the relevant regions must offer at least one plan with **a 3-hour free midday block (0c/kWh)**. It makes the free-window model — which Powershop, OVO and others pioneered voluntarily — government policy. EVs are an explicit target: the AER's chair has said the regulator "would like to see EVs being charged in the middle of the day." The honest catch: the free block is roughly cost-neutral for people who don't shift load — retailers recover it through slightly higher rates outside the window. You only win by genuinely moving consumption into it. A 3-phase home charger can pull 20–30 kWh in those 3 hours, making an EV close to the ideal way to monetise it. --- #### 06 / The Free-Charging Question ## Is free charging still happening? Yes — but it has migrated. Free charging moved off the public network (where it's nearly gone) and into the home midday window (where it's expanding and now mandated). |PUBLIC CHARGING TYPE | STILL FREE?| | -------------------- | -------------------- | | Highway DC fast | NO All major networks paid (Tesla never free here; Evie/Chargefox always paid; NRMA paid since Sep 2023; QESH since 2018) | | Urban DC top-up | JOLT ONLY First 7 kWh/day free (≈45–50 km), then ~46–54c | | AC destination | OFTEN FREE Tesla Destination (~665 venue sites), hotels, wineries, shopping centres | | AC council / kerbside | MIXED Many now metered at low cost; some legacy free chargers remain | | Workplace | OFTEN FREE To staff — but not public-facing | ### The free → paid timeline Early networks were grant- and demonstration-funded to seed adoption, then switched to user-pays once grants ended, queues appeared, and the cost of expanding and maintaining (read: reliability) had to be covered. The "free kWh" has become a retailer acquisition tool, not a charging-network one, reinforcing that energy retailers, more than networks, are winning the battle to own the EV customer. Powershop "EV Day" gives 2 hours of free electricity, 12pm–2pm daily (VIC, NSW, SA, SE QLD; owned by Shell Energy Australia). That midday timing is the tell — it's a solar-soak offer, not a traditional overnight tariff. A companion "EV Night" plan runs ~5c/kWh overnight for those who'd rather charge while they sleep. --- #### 07 / Where they actually compete ## It's about the customer, not the kilowatt Because home charging dominates the *energy*, competition is concentrated here:
  1. Marginal, away-from-home kWh for road trips and top-ups. Here public networks have no real substitute, and the competition is between operators, not against the home.
  2. No-home-charging customer renters and apartment dwellers. This is the one segment where public/kerbside (powerpole) charging is a genuine primary substitute for home charging, and it's the fastest-growing. Nobody has fully cracked strata/kerbside/powerpole economics yet.
  3. Customer relationship and data is the deepest battleground. Fuel majors (Ampol, bp) and motoring clubs (Chargefox/NRMA) are using charging to retain the customer they're at risk of losing as petrol declines. Retailers are using EV tariffs + VPP + (soon) V2G to lock in the household. Convergence is the theme: Ampol now sells fuel-forecourt charging and home electricity (Ampol Energy has been acquired by AGL); AGL cross-promotes with bp pulse; motoring clubs straddle both sides via memberships and Chargefox.
--- #### 08 / Forward Battlegrounds ## What's next _**Policy headwinds.** Most state purchase subsidies have ended; the **[PHEV FBT exemption](/posts/how-fbt-exemption-is-driving-ev-adoption-in-australia/) ended April 2025** and the BEV exemption stages down from ~2027, modestly cooling the demand tailwind._ --- #### 09 / Outlook ## The bottom line Expect the **structural cost advantage of home charging to persist and widen** (solar + smart tariffs + eventual widespread V2G), keeping public networks firmly in the *complement* role: premium convenience for travel and a lifeline for the no-driveway segment, not a day-to-day substitute. Public networks will **consolidate** (the weakest balance sheets and worst-reliability hardware shake out) and segment into highway / forecourt / kerbside / powerpole lanes. The biggest value shift goes to **retailers that orchestrate the home** (tariff + solar + battery + VPP + V2G) — making the electricity retailer, more than the charging network, the likely long-term "owner" of the EV customer. --- *Sources: Electric Vehicle Council State of EVs & ownership surveys (2025–26); AEMO Draft 2026 ISP; DCCEEW / Minister for Energy releases, ABC News and SolarQuotes on the Solar Sharer Offer (Jan–Jun 2026); Powershop, OVO, AGL, Origin, EnergyAustralia, Amber, GloBird, Red Energy plan pages; Tesla, Chargefox, Evie, NRMA, bp pulse, Ampol, JOLT and Exploren network pages; Queensland Government, RAC WA announcements; Carloop / Zecar / WhySolar infrastructure & tariff comparisons (2025–26).* **Caveats:** public-charging and retail-plan pricing change frequently and vary by site, state, and membership; several networks publish rates app-only; [V2G timelines](https://thedriven.io/2026/05/29/amber-to-supercharge-v2g-pilot-to-more-than-1000-evs-with-government-funding-boost/) depend on standards and OEM decisions still in flux.*