With electric cars becoming more popular, the Palaszczuk Government says it would be “a level of insanity” if new Queensland builds weren’t required to include this.
New buildings may be required to fit out charging stations for electric cars under a plan floated by the Palaszczuk Government.
Energy Minister Mick de Brenni said Queenslanders were increasingly interested in buying electric cars and there was therefore “a level of insanity” not to require new homes to be fitted with charging stations.
“Knowing that EVs are emerging as the future of the vehicle market, it seems a level of insanity that new homes, to public buildings, aren’t required to be built EV ready,” he said.
“Someone isn’t joining the dots.
“So we’ll step in and use the National Construction Code to build-in this capability for multistorey residential buildings and … I would like to see this go further to require these capabilities to be ‘built in’ earlier rather than later.
He said Queensland may go alone on the requirement if the Commonwealth didn’t.
“If it doesn’t happen nationally, Queensland could potentially require new construction to be EV ready as part of its proposed Sustainable Resilient Buildings work,” Mr de Brenni said.
“Subject to public consultation, provisions could be included under the Queensland Development Code.
“It is these kinds of initiatives that citizens want and expect from the people they elect.”
Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said the supply of well-placed charging stations for EVs was critical to encouraging more Queenslander’s to make the switch.
Master Electricians Australia chief executive Malcolm Richards said every new home should have provision for a home car charger.
“We should update the building code to have the ducting ready to go so when a customer decides, it’s easy to put in a charger,” he said.
The Palaszczuk Government is building the Queensland Electric Vehicle Superhighway and announced $2.75m last month to build an extra 18 sites foto service the state’s western drive market.
Extracted from The Courier Mail