A convoy of electric cars rolled up to last week’s Hobsons Bay council meeting, with drivers seeking $300,000 funding for charge points and dedicated carparking across the municipality.
Addressing councillors, Williamstown’s Jeff Challis said there was a real opportunity for the council to go from being on the backfoot to be being a leader in the new transport technology.
“We could work with other councils and create a network of fast-charging around the bay – the bay trail,” Mr Challis said.
“Why don’t you make it a policy that every time you do a carpark, it has an electric vehicle charge point?
“Why don’t you work with business, right, encourage them to have electric vehicle charge points for their staff, for their customers.”
The budget submission will be considered by the council ahead of its budget adoption meeting on June 26.
Later in the meeting, the council voted to undertake a feasibility study into trialling electric vehicle charging stations at key locations across Hobsons Bay.
The council voted to work with local businesses to encourage the installation of charging infrastructure, to lobby state and federal governments for support for electric vehicle charging stations, and to consider an electric vehicle for the council’s fleet and a publicly-available charging point at the Hobsons Bay Civic Centre.
Williamstown’s Charmian Gaud, who owns a Tesla car, applauded the move.
“I think it’s a great idea, particularly as Williamstown and Altona are tourist places,” she said.
“If people go there, they can plug in for an hour or overnight. The Tesla superchargers take 45 minutes for a full charge.
“Probably early 2019, there’ll start to be some model 3s arrive in Australia … I think it’s the future.”
