Euroa has been a hot spot for charge stations due to its distance from Melbourne and the nature of the town providing a number of activities that have been identified as attractive to metropolitan Tesla and electric vehicle drivers by the private sector. There has been a focus on tourism routes during this initial set up phase, hence why any centre off the Hume has been overlooked.
What Council have been doing:
In 2018, Council led a project through the Goulburn Broken Greenhouse Alliance (GBGA) to develop a business case for investigating EV¹s in Council fleets and it is likely that many of the Councils within the GBGA area may consider including EV¹s in their fleet composition over the next few years.
The study also looked at the possibility of expanding EV charging infrastructure as part of a tourist route across the region. A new project is being developed to conduct a feasibility study on the location, type and cost of suitable publicly available charging stations through the region, including Greater Shepparton. The GBGA and Central Victorian Greenhouse Alliances are in discussions with ARENA about funding opportunities. ARENA are interested in this being a very broad project so it may involve most LGA’s in Victoria. Timelines are not confirmed as it’s still in development stage but looking at completion within 2 years depending on funding (but hoping for 12 months).
There are also plans to incorporate electrical infrastructure installations at the new SAM.
Once again, thank you for your interest in this matter, and I trust this information is of assistance.
Kind regards,"
So there you have it-no response for 7 months then a rapid response the very day the Shepparton News published my blog in print.
Ill let you make your own mind up about that.
Whilst I welcome the news the council at least appears to be "looking into" this issue, upon reading the councils reply you get the impression that nothing much is happening on this front apart for a couple of studies (thats what you do when you're reluctant to make a decision) and "plans" to incorporate some charging infrastructure at the new SAM.
This space is moving VERY quickly-I am concerned our council will be caught napping-again.
