Distance will be no barrier to electric vehicle road trippers with outback Queensland set to join the electric super highway.
New charging stations will be installed in 18 regional towns under stage three of the Queensland Electric Super Highway (QESH) project.
The highway already has 31 stations stretching from Cairns to Coolangatta and west to Toowoomba, and is set to almost double to 3,800 kilometres.
Way of the future
The owner of Toowoomba's Drayton Medical Centre, Anupam Kumar, was an early adopter of electric vehicles (EV).
He said the expansion of charging stations would entice him further afield.
"I would take my car as far as it can go," Dr Kumar said.
If you build it, they will come
The outback is four-wheel drive country, so why do rural towns need charging stations?
Carly Irving is the executive general manager of Yurika, part of Energy Queensland, which is constructing the QESH.
Ms Irving said it was a chicken and egg situation.
"If you need the infrastructure for people to be able to travel, they cannot travel if there is no infrastructure," she said.
"We are really focusing on allowing our customers, community and people to be able to go up and down the coast and not have that anxiety and know that they are going to get from one place to another."
The chargers are strategically placed 180 to 200km apart to ensure EVs have enough charge to travel between stations.
The Queensland government said it was another way it was working towards its 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2030.
Australia slow on the uptake
Only seven EVs were sold per 10,000 vehicles in Queensland last year, meaning Australia has the lowest rate of electric car ownership among developed countries.
Car manufacturers have blamed a lack of federal government incentives for the slow uptake, while other advocates have lamented EVs being caught in the "culture wars".
Leader of Katter's Australian Party and State Member for Traeger, Robbie Katter, believed the government's EV push was more political than practical.
Mr Katter said the decision to spend millions on charging stations in rural Queensland was bizarre.
"If only they applied that same thinking to dams, strategic roads and rail infrastructure, that would enable us to build a more prosperous future," he said.
"If the government was serious about reducing transport-related emissions, the money would have been better spent ensuring the state's 4 per cent biofuels mandate was enforced."
Drivers like Dr Kumar, however, are putting their faith in the technology.
"There's no other current technology that helps us travel without spoiling the planet or the environment," he said.
