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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW THE STATE OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES IN AUSTRALIA In 2019, sales for electric vehicles increased by 200 per cent, according to the ‘State of Electric Vehicles August 2020’ report from the Electric Vehicle Council. With market share for electric vehicles at 0.6 per cent, Australia lags behind other developed nations. Evie Networks CEO Chris Mills spoke to Convenience World’s Lorna Gloria in an exclusive interview about the challenges of the Australian market and the opportunities for growth. During the Covid-19 crisis, what changes are you seeing in the retail, supply and consumer space? How has your community interaction changed over the past few months? It's fair to say that our engagement is driven entirely around the number of drivers with electric vehicles (EVs) who come to the charging stations to charge their car. It goes without saying that the volume of drivers charging has dropped off substantially because of Covid-19, particularly in Victoria. We've seen charges go to almost zero, and that’s entirely understandable. We accept and acknowledge that that's the situation we're in. That's not stopping us in the rollout of our network, and also the development of products that sit on the site that tie the charging experience to the retail experience with the site hosts we're working with. What has been your greatest lesson to date, navigating through this pandemic? The biggest impact that we have, putting aside the drop-off in drivers charging at the network, is the engagement with the site host. I think what they naturally do is they pull back to core business to focus on business continuity and making sure they've set themselves up to be able to survive through the pandemic and then come out the other end without too many scars. What that then means is putting a charging station at a convenience location is often seen as being a strategic thing, not a core business thing, and so it's all about continuing to engage with the site host to maintain the momentum of finding those sites, validating them, and then progressing. What is the uptake of EV networks – the level of use of charges? Because the industry is very new, there are few EVs in Australia, and there are few of those actually on the road, none on the road in Victoria, as you'd expect. As a result, we see low single digit use across the network. Our job is to be able to handle between 20 and 30 per cent utilisation. 20 per cent utilisation is 155 hours, or basically between five and seven hours a day at maximum without there being too much queuing for people to use the charging station. Ultimately, you’ve got to think about the experience as you come into the service centre, and you're looking for a charge because there's somebody already using the charges. As we get to 20-30 per cent utilisation, we start to think about either expanding the site or building a new site, so that we’re keeping that waiting to a minimum. On the build front, we've launched our ultra-fast charging stations which have these Tritium charges. Tritium is a manufacturer of EV charging equipment. Based in Brisbane, they’re an Australian designer and manufacturer of charging equipment. They export their charges all over the world. We use the 350kW charger. The number of kilowatts is the power of the charger, sort of equivalent to the number of kilometres that you’d get in your car in 10 minutes. Say, for example, a 350kW charger can give a car 350 km of battery life in 10 minutes. These are very high-powered sites designed specifically for use on highways, where people are driving, for example, from Sydney to Melbourne. They don't want to spend half an hour to an hour charging their car. They want 10 minutes of charge. That gives them enough to get to the next charging station. It allows them to take a break. One of the great things about EV charging is you don't have to be with the car when it's charging. You can lock the car up and walk away. The mobile app can tell you the state of the charge while you're having something to eat, taking a rest break or the kids are playing on the playground nearby. This allows people to enjoy the amenities of the area while the car is charging securely. One of the things that we're very keen on doing is making sure that where we select our sites, we select them based on three key criteria. The first one is easy access both on and off the highway, no matter which side of the carriageway you're driving. The second of the criteria is for our security – lighting, cameras – so that you feel safe charging your car no matter what time of the day it is. Whether you're by yourself or with your friends, you know you feel secure about charging your car. The third of the criteria, because you don't need to be there for 10-20 minutes, is that there needs to be some amenities for you to appreciate and enjoy while the car is charging. So, when identifying our locations, we consider all three criteria, petrol retailers and highway sites, truck stops and big service centres on the highway. They’ll have their own restaurants and there may even be a playground. That way people not only appreciate the freedom that the breadth of the network gives them to use their EVs, but they also have a reasonable experience while they're charging. Evie Networks CEO Chris Mills. 28 CONVENIENCE WORLD SEP/OCT, 2020