Melbourne-based EV charging company JET Charge has launched the Charging as a Service Project, a $24.9 million endeavor that is poised to reshape the way fleet operators access EV charging infrastructure.
The Australian Government, through ARENA, is committing $12 million from the Driving the Nation Fund to facilitate the realization of this groundbreaking project.
Under the Charging as a Service (CaaS) model, JET Charge will take on the responsibility of installing and maintaining EV charging stations at the customer’s site. Fleet operators will remunerate JET Charge via a subscription fee, akin to how consumers pay for streaming services.
This project is set to run for three years and aims to spur the adoption of more than 3,100 new electric vehicles alongside the deployment of necessary charging infrastructure. As transport accounts for nearly one-fifth of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, decarbonising this sector is pivotal to meeting the country’s emissions reduction targets.
Fleets are a significant portion of new vehicle sales in Australia, comprising approximately half of the market. This reality presents an invaluable opportunity to reduce emissions on Australian roads. However, for small fleet operators, the substantial upfront costs and ongoing complexities associated with the installation and upkeep of charging infrastructure have posed significant hurdles to electrifying their transport operations.
The CaaS model is tailored to address these issues by offering small businesses the option to outsource their charging requirements to JET Charge via a manageable monthly bundled payment. JET Charge can aggregate demand from fleets, thus leveraging economies of scale to provide cost-efficient charging services to its customers.
ARENA CEO Darren Miller expressed his enthusiasm for the project. “We know that access to charging infrastructure is a barrier for fleet users looking to switch to EVs, so it’s exciting to see JET Charge developing a new way to make charging more accessible,” he said.
“Not only will this project put over 3,000 new electric vehicles on the road, but it will also help prove the charging as a service model and hopefully lead to services like this rolling out across Australia.”
JET Charge CEO Tim Washington, echoed the excitement. “I am extremely excited to be working with ARENA in launching this game-changing model for Australian fleets. We know that fleets are looking for a way to electrify, and that infrastructure is a key barrier. Our CaaS project will not only increase affordability, but also demonstrate what running private charging networks will look like at scale,” he noted.
The Driving the Nation Program, part of ARENA’s funding initiatives, is designed to facilitate the demonstration and deployment of net-zero emissions vehicle technologies. ARENA has made substantial investments in zero-emissions vehicles since 2015, encompassing public charging infrastructure, vehicle-to-grid trials, innovations in charging technology, hydrogen refueling, and fleet decarbonization.
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