White Tesla charging. Image: Riz Akhtar
Tesla is expected to open its biggest super-charging site in Australia next month – with 12 of the company’s V3 Supercharging stalls currently being installed in the inner-eastern Melbourne suburb of Box Hill.
Works are currently underway to get it operational just after the new year, and sources told The Driven that the site will feature 12 V3 stalls, making it the bigger Tesla supercharger site in Australia, and the biggest EV charging complex of any kind in this country.
It’s good news for Tesla drivers in Australia given the huge growth in Tesla numbers in the country this year, particularly following the arrive of the popular Model Y crossover in August.
Image: Riz Akhtar
The previous largest Tesla supercharger site is in Macquarie Park in Sydney which has 10 V2 stalls.
Victoria currently has 15 active Tesla supercharger sites so the Box Hill site will bring that up to 16 sites with combined 84 charging stalls by early 2023.
Image: Riz Akhtar
The last major supercharging site to open in the state was on the way down to Mornington Peninsula in Mornington. This featured 6 V3 stalls and is part of the HomeCo and opened in December 2021.
Since then, there have been over 17,238 Teslas delivered to Australian customers. That’s nearly 50% more Teslas delivered in 2022 so far compared to 2021.
At this stage, it’s unclear if any of the newest sites will include the upcoming V4 superchargers which can reportedly charge at speeds of up to 350 kW. The first site began construction in the US state of Arizona with 40 stalls in September this year. The current V3 superchargers are capped at 250 kW.
EV uptake in Australia hit 4.7% in November and is expected to do better in December, and Tesla EVs make up a large proportion of it, so more DC fast charging infrastructure like the Tesla superchargers is needed to keep up.
Many of these Tesla owners will be travelling over the upcoming holiday period. It will be interesting to see if we see long queues over this period at supercharging sites.
The good news is that including the Box Hill supercharger, Tesla has 50 new sites planned for Australia in the next 18 months.
Many of these are part of the NSW government’s charging initiative. 36 of the 50 sites sit in NSW and a few of these will have up to 15 stalls and will be open to all EVs, not just Teslas.
Source: Tesla/Twitter
The Driven’s view: With more EVs hitting our roads in 2022 than any year before, it’s good to see large sites finally being considered for Australian EV owners to use. The Box Hill site will be one of many 12-stall supercharger sites that Tesla owners will have the benefit of using in 2023.
Like Tesla’s European charging sites, the Australian EV leader might also be getting plans ready to open its superchargers to all EVs so there will be broader benefits for EV owners in the coming years.
A fast, reliable EV charging network for everyone will shape the way EV owners travel and help many others make the switch to cleaner, greener transport.