Australia's public EV charging is consolidating. Here's why your garage doesn't care.

This week the Australian Financial Review ran an interview with Tim Washington, the founder of JET Charge — the biggest name in Australian EV charging. The headline: quality beats quantity in the EV charger race.

It's worth reading if you're into the industry side of things. But if you're a Melbourne EV owner — or about to become one — I want to pull out what it actually means for you. Because underneath the industry talk is a simple, reassuring message that nobody says out loud enough:

The one piece of charging infrastructure you fully control is the one on your garage wall.

What the article actually said

A few things stood out from the AFR's reporting.

First, Washington argues Australia has been building public chargers without a coherent national plan — his view is that blindly rolling out chargers "doesn't actually achieve the results" the industry or consumers want. Australia has ended up with the wrong mix: not enough fast-charging capacity in some places, too many underused sites in others.

Second, the economics of public charging are getting harder, not easier. The article points to Europe, where the transition is further along: operators there are stacking up losses on underused sites, and two of the UK's bigger charging companies collapsed into administration this year. One UK charging boss quoted in the piece expects their market to shrink from about 150 operators to five or six. Australia has roughly 23 operators heading into the same squeeze.

Third — and this is the tell — JET Charge itself has moved its focus to fleets and commercial work. Washington told the AFR he believes fleet charging will play a bigger role than consumer charging, and their client list now reads Woolworths and IKEA rather than the family down the street. That's a smart call for a company their size, and it says a lot about where the big players see the money.

Meanwhile, demand for EVs keeps climbing. The AFR notes sales have surged since the oil shock pushed petrol prices up, and the Climate Change Authority has recommended EVs make up half of all new car sales by 2035.

So: more EVs arriving every month, a public charging network facing consolidation, and the industry's biggest installer looking the other way from suburban driveways.

Why none of this should worry you

Here's the thing the industry debate always skips past: around 80 per cent of EV charging happens at home. Not at shopping centres, not at highway stops — at home, overnight, while you sleep.

Public fast charging matters for road trips and for people without off-street parking. But if you've got a driveway or a garage, the public network is your backup plan, not your fuel supply. Whether Australia ends up with 23 charging operators or six, your car still charges in your garage tonight for a fraction of the cost.

And home charging is about to get even better value in Victoria. From 1 October, the Midday Power Saver gives eligible households three hours of free electricity every day — and the government has explicitly named EV charging as one of the best ways to use it. A smart home charger can soak up that free window automatically. A public charger can't do that for you. (I've written a full breakdown of the Midday Power Saver elsewhere on this blog.)

"Quality beats quantity" applies to your driveway too

The phrase from the AFR headline is about the public network, but honestly, it's the best one-line summary of home charging I've heard.

You don't need the biggest charger, the most features, or the flashiest brand. You need one well-chosen unit, properly installed.

That means:

The right charger for your home, not the dearest one. A 7kW unit fills almost any EV overnight on single-phase power. If you've got three-phase and a car that can use it, 22kW is on the table — but plenty of homes don't need it, and it's my job to tell you that before you pay for it.

A switchboard check before the quote, not after. The switchboard is the biggest variable in any install. Quoting without looking at it is how people end up with surprise costs halfway through a job.

Solar-aware if you've got panels. Chargers like the Zappi can divert your excess solar straight into the car instead of exporting it for cents. If you're paying for hardware anyway, it should work with the system you already own.

A Certificate of Electrical Safety with every job. Every ChargEV installation is carried out by licensed A-grade electricians and comes with a CoES. That's not a bonus — it's the baseline for a compliant install in Victoria.

That's what "quality over quantity" looks like at house scale. One charger, chosen properly, installed properly, documented properly.

What it costs

For most Melbourne homes, a fully installed home charger lands between $1,899 and $2,799 — charger, installation, and certificate included. The exact number depends on which unit you choose, your switchboard, the cable run, and whether you're on single or three-phase power. I've broken down each of those variables in detail in my earlier post on installation costs.

If you want your number, it takes about three minutes: photos of your switchboard and your parking spot are all we need, and you'll have a fixed-price quote within 24 hours. No site-visit fees, no surprises at invoice time.

The public charging industry will spend the next few years sorting itself out. Your garage doesn't have to wait.

Get a fixed-price quote →

Sources: Australian Financial Review, "Quality beats quantity in EV charger race, says Jet Charge CEO," July 2026. ChargEV is not affiliated with JET Charge or the AFR.