As Australia progresses toward an electrified future, questions arise about how we will charge all these electric vehicles on the road. Daniel Williamson investigates a proposed solution.

Australia’s electric vehicle (EV) revolution is gathering pace. More than 15,000 new EVs hit the road each month, according to data gathered by the Electric Vehicle Council (EVC). In 2024, Australians had purchased over 100,000 EVs and the Australian Automobile Association revealed that 41,146 new EVs were sold across Australia in Q2 2025.

Yet, as adoption soars, a new battle is sparking over who gets to build, operate and install the infrastructure that will power these machines.

One proposal gaining attention is to install pole-mounted public EV chargers on streets and kerbsides across the country. By leveraging existing utility poles and cabling, these chargers can be deployed in large numbers without the need to build new infrastructure from scratch. The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) is considering allowing distribution network service providers (DNSPs) permission to lead the rollout and to own and maintain these chargers.

DNSPs CitiPower, Powercor and United Energy argue that they have the scale, workforce and technical expertise to deploy chargers quickly and integrate them seamlessly into the grid. CitiPower and Powercor’s head of customer connections and requests, Daniel Bye, says it won’t be an issue.

“We firmly believe that we can deliver faster, cheaper and more reliable pole-mounted EV infrastructure while avoiding network upgrades through dynamic control of pole-mounted chargers. This will lead to customers paying less to charge their EVs while chargers will be installed in areas with limited off-street parking,” he says.

A person reading this proposal on a sheet of paper may say: “Hey, this all ticks the boxes!” It’ll lead to rapid deployment, lower upfront infrastructure costs and the ability to plug into the grid where poles already exist. But industry bodies like the National Electrical and Communications Association (NECA) and senior figures in the EV sector see it differently.

NECA director of policy, technical and safety, Neil Roberts, says the proposal breaches the intent of existing rules: “You shouldn’t be giving them a waiver to let them own and operate this stuff. Their remit is to do the poles and wires and substations that deliver electricity.

“A pole-mounted EV charger is a consuming device and a connection to their network – it’s not a part of their network.”

Director of a new business in the EV space, Vehicle Charging Solutions Australia, and former EVC head of energy and infrastructure, Ross De Rango, is blunt and direct in his assessment: “There is absolutely no need for the DNSPs to own public charging infrastructure. The competitive market has delivered to date, is delivering now and can be expected to continue delivering into the future.

“The role of the DNSPs is to enable the competitive market, through efficiently delivering new connections as and where required. Some of them are performing quite badly at that task.”

Daniel disagrees, adding that the market hardly exists in Victoria right now, and that’s despite some of the strongest EV sales in some inner-city suburbs.

“The operation of the chargers will be left to the experts – charge point operators (CPOs) and eMobility service providers (EMSPs),” he says.

“We have no interest in selling power to customers or being in that EMSP space. We plan to partner with private charging companies to make our assets available for our customers to charge their EVs.”

An EMSP is a company that offers services to EV drivers, helping them find nearby charging ports and manage payments. Some of the larger names across Australia in this space are JET Charge, Evie Networks and AMPECO.

Neil says the DNSPs’ case for ownership is partly based on a flawed assumption: “Their claim is there’s a market failure here, so they’re going to service areas that are not profitable for anyone else. The problem is they’ve created a market failure themselves.”

“Some of the charge point operators that we’ve spoken to have made applications to install EV chargers, and they’ve been quoted $20,000 just to produce a quote for relatively simple work. Pole rental rates in Victoria went from about $750 a year to $3,500 without explanation. That’s predatory and anti-competitive behaviour.”

Daniel says that this is incorrect, stating that the facilities access agreement (FAA) rates have been given to multiple companies at a reduced rate of $750 to assist in the stimulation of the market.

Ross warns the economic playing field would tilt heavily if DNSPs can recover their charger costs through electricity bills – something private operators can’t do.

“No one else gets to do that, so, in a future where DNSPs are allowed to rate-base public EV charging hardware, no one else will be able to compete.”

Daniel denies this vehemently, stating the trial will not impact electricity bills at all and that costs will not be recovered by the Regulated Asset Base (RAB).

He also points to inefficiency, citing the Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s community batteries program, where a DNSP-led project spent more to deliver less than the projects led by competitive businesses.

Daniel says that batteries are complex and expensive, and not a fair comparison to that of electric vehicle charging infrastructure (EVCI).

“In current programs deployed across Australia, consumers are limited to those who have deployed those chargers, while under our model, consumers can select between those EMSPs that wish to participate. We welcome all EMSPs to discuss the opportunity to participate in the trial with us,” Daniel says.

Neil says the fairness issue extends beyond the industry, adding that the DNSPs can be remunerated whether the charges are used or not, because the asset goes on their regulated assets base, so they can recover the cost from all energy consumers.

“Your pensioner who can’t afford a car – let alone an EV – is paying for someone in Surrey Hills to have a charger down the road. That’s fundamentally unfair,” he says.

Both Neil and Ross point to tactical flaws in some DNSP proposals. Ross says that Ausgrid wants to deploy 70% of its EV chargers without reserving the parking space in front of EVs, meaning that the majority of the time they’ll be blocked by petrol cars.

Neil notes similar issues have already been seen in Sydney’s Paddington, where unreserved spaces have rendered chargers that are ineffective most of the time.

The Australian Energy Market Commission’s (AEMC) upcoming panel at the ACCC/AER Regulatory Conference asks a pointed question: “Does speed trump competition in getting to net zero?”

For Ross, when it comes to EV charging, there’s no need to trade these two off: “The requisite speed of EV charging deployment is already being achieved, despite self-serving misinformation being spread by DNSPs to attempt to make the opposite case. To the extent that deployments could be sped up, industry is looking for the DNSPs to take their foot off the brake, not to take over.”

For their part, CitiPower and Powercor say they support a diverse charging ecosystem and welcome opportunities to work alongside commercial operators. They argue that having multiple pathways for deployment — including DNSP-led projects — will deliver the best chance of meeting Australia’s EV uptake targets.

The AER’s impending decision looms over many. For NECA members and the competitive EVCI operators that engage them, the priority is keeping the market open, ensuring fair conditions and preventing monopolistic outcomes. For DNSPs, the focus is on building infrastructure quickly, safely and equitably across their networks.

“It’s a vibrant, well-regulated free market, doing what vibrant, well-regulated free markets do, solving for the needs of its customers. What we need is to protect the competitive industry from predatory behaviour by monopolies,” Ross says.

Neil agrees on the need for healthy networks but adds: “We want them to concentrate on what they’re good at and let the market develop the solutions and technologies that will best serve the community.”

Daniel says CitiPower and Powercor are open for business today: “If a company wants to connect a pole-mounted EV charger in Victoria, we will connect them no problem.”

The challenge now is finding a model that delivers the speed, coverage and fairness needed to power Australia’s EV future, while keeping all players in the game.