Electric drivers caught in recharge tangle

Electric cars may pose the same frustrations as smartphones in Australia, a Sydney event has heard, with a tangle of cords needed to recharge them rather than one standard for all brands.

Independent MP Kylea Tink raised the issue at the Batteries on Wheels Summit on Wednesday, urging the federal government step in to ensure Australia's early electric vehicle adopters did not suffer the same speed bumps as drivers overseas.

Changes were also needed to let drivers check the price of refuelling their cars, according to motoring group NRMA, to show off the cheapest places to top up their batteries.

The issues were among many raised at the Smart Energy Council conference, an extension of Canberra's National Electric Vehicle Summit held in August.

Ms Tink said the federal government had made substantial policy changes since the last event but now needed to develop and "mandate" standards for electric vehicle chargers and software that would work across brands.

"We simply cannot allow EV chargers to become the next mobile phone chargers," she said.

"As a market slow to move, we now have a unique opportunity to work with industry to ensure a unified driver experience across all public charging networks, and to ensure universal agreement on plugs."

Australian electric vehicle drivers currently navigate a market with seven plug standards, as well as different apps and maps from vehicle charging firms and car manufacturers.

Market leader Tesla uses a CCS2 plug for its Model 3 cars, for example, but Nissan uses the CHAdeMO standard to recharge its Leaf vehicles.

Leading electric vehicle charging providers such as Chargefox, Evie and ChargePoint also require users to download and sign up for different apps and could require different cables.

Ms Tink said the federal government should "secure an agreement on charging plugs from manufacturers" to simplify the experience.

"As it currently stands, a driver of an internal combustion engine vehicle rarely bats an eyelid when it comes to stopping to fill up with petrol," she said.

"In contrast for electric vehicles, the reality is that many markets the public charging experience is not this simple.

"Drivers will be confronted with multiple rates, multiple mobile apps, different terms and conditions, separate bills and personal data spread across several organisations. We know that hasn't gone well for us in Australia recently."

NRMA strategy and investments executive general manager Vivian Miles said another issue was "transparency" as electric vehicle drivers often only found out the cost of using a public charger after they had plugged into one.

"There isn't a whole lot of visibility today on electricity prices are charged for EVs," she said.

"You need to download an app and sometimes billing happens in the back-end. It's not like petrol stations where you've got big signs and an app that tells you where the cheapest fuel is."

The federal government is currently reviewing submissions to its National Electric Vehicle Strategy consultation paper, which quizzed the industry about standards, policies, and fuel efficiency rules.

The consultation came months after the US Federal Highway Administration proposed a new set of standards for its electric vehicle charging network, including common software, payment schemes and pricing information across providers.