Australia is Building an Electric Super Highway
Though it’s five times the size of Japan, the Australian state of Queensland has only 5 million people and even fewer electric vehicles — 1,000 electric cars, to be exact.
But that’s not stopping the Queensland government from constructing a 1,000 mile ‘Electric Super Highway’, or one mile for every existing electric vehicle in the state.
An otherwise regular coastal road stretching along the Coral Sea — home to the imperiled Great Barrier Reef — the highway will be outfitted with an abundance of charging stations along its route in order to encourage the adoption of more eco-friendly vehicles.
“I encourage all governments across Australia to follow suit, particularly as this support will help to provide motorists with increased choice of cars that are cheaper and healthier to operate,” Australia’s environment and roads minister Steven Miles said in a statement. “The future truly is electric.”
And, Miles says, that future is coming fast.
The existing coastal road stretching from Gold Coast to Cairns, Australia is seen here.
In Thursday’s announcement, Minister Miles promised 18 operational stations along the route in the next six months. And for an unspecified “initial phase,” the electricity will be free.
The United States has something similar to this: The West Coast Green Highway. Winding through Washington, Oregon, California — coincidentally the three states with the highest rates of electric vehicle adoption — the program ensures a car port every 25 to 50 miles along Interstate Five. Though the distance between charging stations is streamlined, the cost of electricity varies at each stop.
Australia’s “build it and they will come” mentality might seem strange to some, but the government says the decision is based on sound data. In the next two years, fully half of Queensland residents say they’ll be considering the purchase of an electric car, according to the Queensland Household Energy Survey. And, Miles said Thursday, the survey suggests “improvements to public fast-charging infrastructure would further tempt them.”
See also: Australia Faces Solar Power Growing Pains
Photos via Google Maps, Getty Images / Mark Kolbe
Eleanor Cummins is a science journalist focusing on all things urban, especially climate change resilience and transportation. Her work can also be found in Slate, Popular Science, Atlas Obscura and the podcast miniseries Tie My Tubes.
