Western Australia-based solar installer Infinite Energy has joined forces with electric vehicle infrastructure company JET Charge to supply its residential customers with EV charging solutions.
JET Charge, which is based in North Melbourne, is a leading supplier, installers and manager of electric vehicle charging infrastructure in Australia’s nascent EV market, and is a preferred local partner of Tesla and Volvo.
The two companies hope to bring EV charging infrastructure to the WA market, to support the uptake of electric vehicles in the state.
“We believe that electric vehicles will move towards dominating the vehicle market in the next five to 10 years,” said Infinite Energy CEO Shane Cremin in a statement last week.
“Electric Vehicle charging will complete the picture for Infinite Energy’s residential and commercial energy solutions, with solar, battery storage and retail electricity already part of our offering to the market,” he added.
“We’re proud to partner with JET Charge to bring its world class charging infrastructure and expertise to WA.”
JET Charge founder Tim Washington believes the Australia’s west is in the perfect position for the take up of electric vehicles, with ample electricity generation capacity and high uptake of rooftop solar.
The company’s EV Box charger is billed by the company as one of the highest performing on the market, and features “smarts” such as demand response, load levelling, peaking demand shaving, and max amperage configuration.
It also includes a software platform, EV Connect, which gives users remote control of EV charging, via a mobile phone app.
Electric vehicles have been slow to take off in Australia, a situation that has been attributed to the comparatively high cost of the technology, as well as a lack of government incentives or supporting infrastructure.
Indeed, the Australian market has been so sluggish that many international car makers have stopped trying to sell their all-electric models here altogether, holding off until something shifts.
But momentum seems to be building, with Tesla’s Model X due to arrive on Australian shores by the end of the year, to be followed by the US company’s mass market vehicle, the Model 3.
Sophie is editor of One Step Off The Grid and editor of its sister site, Renew Economy. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.
