Australia’s largest electric vehicle (EV) charging network, Chargefox, has celebrated the 20,000th user of its app, a particularly impressive milestone in a country that is not currently known for its forward-thinking EV adoption and policy support.
It’s been a good year for Chargefox, the Melbourne-headquartered EV charging network that completed the first phase of its national ultra-fast EV charging network in May, commissioning the 22nd DC fast charger in Cooma, NSW.
The Chargefox ultra-fast EV charging network now stretches from Cairns in northern Queensland down the eastern seaboard to Melbourne, and across the south coast to Adelaide. Chargefox also operates two ultra-fast chargers in Western Australia, not to mention managing the Queensland Electric Super Highway.
And these are just the company’s ultra-fast chargers, with Chargefox’s entire network consisting of over 850 chargers located across the country.
Chargefox continued its momentum in June, announcing that it is targeting 5,000 EV charging points across Australia by 2025 – a target which will include at least 2,000 fast and/or ultra-rapid charging speeds.
“In 2018 Chargefox built Australia’s first-ever ultra-rapid station, and since then our network has grown to over 850 plugs,” said Marty Andrews, CEO of Chargefox, speaking in late-June. “Our goal is to connect the infrastructure needed to help mass EV uptake and reduce road transport emissions.
“We’ve made significant progress over the past few years, having powered more than 5 million carbon-free kms and abating around 1500 tonnes of carbon emissions.”
The good news continued for Chargefox, which announced on Wednesday that it had topped 20,000 users on its Chargefox app – available on both the Google Android store as well as the Apple App Store.
We’ve just welcomed our 20,000th Chargefox app user and to celebrate, we’re giving away a year of FREE fast charging. To enter, make sure you’ve downloaded the app and created an account before midnight on Sun 29 Aug – simple! More info: https://t.co/YmNy6KKVQG pic.twitter.com/BFbBsdeONd
— Chargefox (@Chargefox) August 24, 2021
“It’s a huge milestone for us, and means that over 80% of all BEV drivers in Australia have a Chargefox account!” the company said on their website.
The news that Chargefox has reached 20,000 registered Chargefox app users is good news – though, exactly how many of those users are “active” users is another matter.
Chargefox clarified in private communication that it’s figures showed over 20,000 registered users, but whether or not “over 80% of all BEV drivers” in Australia are actually using Chargefox is potentially another matter altogether.
A recent “State of Electric Vehicles” report published this week by the Electric Vehicle Council reported that 8,688 electric vehicles were sold across Australia in the first half of 2021 – already a 25% increase on the total number of electric vehicles sold in 2020, and 30% up on the number of EVs sold in 2019.
But before 2019, EV sales in Australia barely topped 2,000, so while it is certainly likely there are by now over 20,000 EVs on Australia’s roads, it’d probably be a close-run thing.
Nevertheless, in celebration of whatever metric Chargefox is using to measure 20,000 app users, the company is running a competition to give away 12 months of free fast charging. To be eligible to enter, you must be an Australian resident aged 18 years and over and have downloaded the Chargefox App and created a user account before 11.59pm on Sunday 29th August, 2021 – so there are still a few days left for EV owners to enter.
