A network of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations is underway in public carparks across East Gippsland.

Current status

Council has now installed six EV charging stations for the public to use. Each charger is a 50kW DC unit with a dual plug (CCS2 and CHAdeMO), except in Buchan where a smaller 24kW DC unit has been installed. The following Council chargers are now available on the Chargefox network for the public to use (fees apply):

• Bairnsdale: Nicholson Street carpark (near St Mary's Church and McDonalds)
  
• Buchan: Main Road - note this is a 24kW DC dual plug unit
• Cann River: Ward Street near Mick Baum Park
  
• Mallacoota: 4 Greer Street - note this is currently set to 40kW until additional network capacity becomes available in April 2025
• Orbost: 5 Wolseley St carpark (near the toilet and SES building)
• Omeo: Tongio Road (100m south of Day Ave)
• Lakes Entrance - coming in mid 2025 to the library carpark

In addition, Council also is working with third party providers Tesla, NRMA and Evie Networks to augment the public charging network across East Gippsland:

• Cann River: Mick Baum Park on Ward Street - 3 x superfast CCS compatibility (up to 250kW) Tesla
• Bairnsdale: Francis Street - 50kW DC dual plug Evie Networks
• Paynesville: Raymond St - 50kW DC dual plug Evie Networks
• Lakes Entrance: Visitor Information Centre on Marine Parade - 50kW DC dual plug Evie Networks
• Bruthen, Visitor Information Centre - 50kW DC dual plug Evie Networks

Coming in 2025: NRMA have plans to install two 184kW DC chargers in the library carpark at Lakes Entrance.

A comprehensive list of public chargers is listed on the Plugshare website www.plugshare.com.

Plugshare is a popular website and smart phone app used by EV drivers. It acts as a trip planner showcasing where EV chargers are located and who the provider is. There is also a map showing where to charge, and useful comments are left by other drivers.

Wondering how much an EV costs to run?

Council's charging stations are set at a fee of 40c/kWh. This will rise to 57c/kWh on 1 July 2025 due to increasing repair and servicing costs.

EV's are generally much cheaper to run, especially if you're able to charge from home. But if you've wondered about how much it costs to run an EV versus a petrol car, then check out this article in The Driven.

Transport contributes Australia’s second largest source of greenhouse gases, and these new charging stations offer a 50kW DC fast charging option and are powered by 100% renewable energy, making them an environmentally friendly and sustainable transport option. All electric vehicle charging stations installed by Council source 100% renewable electricity as part of VECO.

At 50kW, a vehicle plugged in to a charger will add about 50km of range per 10 minutes plugged in. The cost for using the charging stations will be 40 cents per kilowatt hour, which is competitive with other charging options in Australia.

Council EV chargers

Download the latest fact sheet in the Documents tab.

Council used federal and state government funding to install six public EV charging stations, with a final one planned for Lakes Entrance in 2025.

In the first year of operation (February 2023 to March 2024) there’s been 2,176 combined charging sessions, from 410 postcodes across Australia.

Council chargers have been funded by the Australian Government’s Local Roads and Community Infrastructure (LRCI) Program and has seen a dual plug (CCS2 and CHAdeMO) 50kW fast charger installed in Bairnsdale, Cann River, Omeo and Orbost.

Stage two is funded by a joint Destination Charging Across Victoria (DCAV) grant and Council funding and will see the following chargers installed in:

• Buchan: town centre - 24kW DC ABB charger (Note: this will add 150km of additional range per hour).

• Mallacoota: Greer Street - 50kW DC Sinexcel charger was installed in January 2025, and is now available.
  
• Lakes Entrance: 12 Mechanics Street carpark (carpark of the Lakes Entrance Service Centre and library) will have a 50kW Tritium charger installed.

More information see DCAV.

Note: Council has installed Tritium charging stations. Some units have been experiencing frequent and unexpected technical faults. Tritium is no longer an Australian owned company, and accessing spare parts is taking longer than anticipated. Thank you for your patience as we work through ongoing technical issues. We apologise for any inconvenience and are working hard (and as quickly as possible) to resolve issues as they arise.

Electric vehicle expo and charging network launch

The community were invited to attend the launch of the East Gippsland charging network as part of the EV Expo on Saturday 20 May 2023 at the St Mary’s Parish Centre and Nicholson Street carpark in Bairnsdale. Deputy Mayor Cr Arthur Allen opened the event and launched Council's charging infrastructure network.

The event was great success, and was proudly organised by the Sunrise Rotary Club of Bairnsdale with support from East Gippsland Shire Council, the Gippsland Climate Change Network and St Mary’s Parish centre. The event provided our East Gippsland community with the opportunity to 'see, explore and understand' all about electric vehicles. There were industry experts, local EV owners and car models from local dealers available to test drive.

Location of chargers?

Where to place EV charger placement is tightly constrained by:

• car park type (two 90 degree carparks next to each other are needed ideally)
• access to 3 phase electricity
• capacity in the grid
• close proximity to amenities such as public toilets, cafes, shops, parks

The Visit Gippsland website now has an EV charging stations map that shows the addresses of charging stations across Gippsland.

If you know someone looking to charge their car, please alert them to the map.

CLICK HERE to view the map.

If you have a charging station near or at your business, please email contact@destinationgippsland.com.au and they will add it to the map.