EVs

[busker]

Interesting.  If the infrastructure is in place and can support itself without subsidies, this could be a good deal.  In the US, a mostly unmentioned problem is disabled charging ports and stolen pigtails... maybe Australian public-spiritedness can deal with those details.  The other issue is how tightly charging infrastructure is tied to the Internet, which can lead to unforeseen outages that don't bother an IC vehicle.

At an overall level, EV charging supports itself. At specific locations, it would need to be cross subsidised like any infrastructure, such as the road network (subsidised in all countries. Petrol taxes only recover a tiny portion of the costs) and indeed, the electricity network, where incremental costs are socialised (new assets are added to the regulated asset base and cost recovery is applied to the entire user base, not just the incremental users, except in special cases with large, pinpoint industrial loads).

Vandalism has been an issue in Australia, like in the US, but haven't seen any examples of that, just read about it in the papers. 

Charging infrastructure doesn't need to be tied to the internet, but it's a business feature that app-based access is the most common. Internet availability is not an issue other than in truly remote parts. But if there's a charging station, there's a connection to the distribution network, and it's unlikely that you wouldn't have a telecom connection there. 


PS - I have no doubt that even if the business case for EVs hadn't stacked up (which they do now, thanks to Chinese ingenuity in crashing prices and breaking the Tesla monopoly), they should've been subsidised, including the charging infrastructure, on the basis of non debatable positive externalities, like lowering CO2 emissions, improving air quality, and reducing the reliance on a volatile oil market (and associated endless wars).