The City of Adelaide has endorsed a roadmap to accelerate the shift to Electric Vehicles (EV) in the city and North Adelaide.
Prepared by industry experts ARUP, the Roadmap provides immediate actions which can be delivered by Council within three years and identifies priority charging locations across the City of Adelaide.
The Roadmap was informed by engagement across local governments, State Government, industry, community representative groups as well as stakeholders. Included in the recommendations are three actions Council can begin implementing this financial year:
• Establishing a clear framework for the rollout of EV chargers at strategic locations
• Enable the market-led provision of on-street EV chargers in select locations which minimise impacts on the public realm
• Work with private sector providers to trial on-street charging in residential areas
Having already endorsed a Climate Action Plan 2022-2025, Council aims to accelerate the shift to electric vehicles by including the installation of 100 public electric vehicle and bicycle chargers by 2025; as well as setting a target of 75 percent of our light fleet vehicles to be EVs by 2025 and to be powered by Council's 100 percent renewable electricity.
The popularity of electric powered vehicles is growing rapidly. In 2022, EV cars made up 6.5% of all new car sales in South Australia, and in 2023 EV sales are already more than double all of 2022.
Last year, transport emissions accounted for more than a third of the community's carbon footprint in the city while Councils fleet cars accounted for around 8 percent of our total corporate emissions.
Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith said Council had a responsibility to the community to help facilitate the transition from traditional vehicles to EVs.
"As a Council, we want to support our community to transition to a low carbon economy through education, incentives and appropriate community infrastructure," said the Lord Mayor.
"If we can encourage 10,000 households to make the switch to EVs, it would reduce carbon emissions by approximately 22,000 tonnes annually, a reduction of 2.3 percent of the total community emissions.
"We aim to provide infrastructure which is functional but elegant without narrowing footpaths or creating unsightly clutter."
The recommendations and locations of priority charging locations in the EV Transition Roadmap will inform budget proposals in the 2024/25 business plan and budget process.
A copy of the EV Transition Roadmap is available here.
