New ideas for charging electric vehicles from the outback to the suburbs and inner city will receive $70 million in federal grant funding.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen announced the additional grants on Wednesday, revealing the funds could go towards electric vehicle charging solutions for remote and regional communities or new ways to charge cars in urban apartment blocks.
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency will oversee the fund, with businesses and government organisations eligible to apply.
The extra funding came hours after Mr Bowen and Transport Minister Catherine King launched the government's highly anticipated National Electric Vehicle Strategy, including a commitment to launch a fuel efficiency standard and create a map of optimal charging locations in Australia.
Speaking at an Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry event in Sydney, Mr Bowen said the new grants were recognition many Australians would need more infrastructure to help their transition into electric vehicles.
"Everyone knows where to find a petrol station when they need one - they should know there's an EV charger nearby when they need that too," he said.
"The brief is open ... this might include proposals to target apartment block residents and high-density areas with low access to off-street parking, or remote or regional communities and improving their user experience."
Innovations eligible for grants of between $500,000 and $15m will include trials for public charging infrastructure that overcame barriers to fuelling electric cars, as well as smart charging technology.
Also eligible for the grants are projects to enable battery-powered cars to feed electricity back into the grid.
The renewable energy agency's acting CEO Chris Faris said the investment would come addition to $140m already committed to green transport technology, including fast-charging and hydrogen refuelling stations.
"As more EVs become available to Australians and their costs decline, it's important that the availability of high-quality charging infrastructure keeps pace with the take-up of EVs," Mr Faris said.
"The Driving the Nation Program will help by driving innovation in public charging, finding better and smarter ways for everyone to be able to access EV charging, even if they can't charge at home."
Evie Networks chief executive Chris Mills said the government also needed to ensure providers were not slugged with unduly high costs for recharging electric vehicles, but commended the national policy for its focus on building in regional Australia.
"Evie Networks understands the need to build on the state and federal governments' fast-charging investment in metropolitan areas and on highway routes by accelerating infrastructure roll-out further in regional areas," he said.
"This will instil more consumer confidence and encourage the faster uptake of electric vehicles."
Electric vehicles made up 6.7 per cent of all new car sales in Australia during March, up from 3.8 per cent in 2022.
