Australia hoping to build electric super highway

The quest for alternative energy has taken over Australia. In an effort to jump on the bandwagon of electricity-powered vehicles, the government of Australia through its Acting Main Roads Minister and Environment Minister Steven Miles has decided to push forward with construction of a new electric super highway, according to a report by IFLScience.com.

According to Google Maps, driving from Cairns to Gold Coast takes almost a day – nearly 20 hours if the toll stopovers along the Bruce Hwy are included. The shortest trip for freight delivery is by plane, the trip taking about 2 ¼ hours.

In a statement, Miles called the super highway “a series of fast-charging electric vehicle stations which will be rolled out at locations right up the Queensland coast from the Gold Coast to Cairns to encourage the uptake of electric vehicles in Queensland.”

This electric super highway hopes to encourage more of Australia’s citizens to get on the electric vehicle revolution, as Miles himself dubbed it. With more charging stations on the route, Miles hopes regular commuters will switch to electric “as part of our transition to a low emissions future.”

The Electric Vehicle Council, on its website, offers a list of cities and counties with electric charging stations. The list shows only 3 electric charging stations near Cairns, with only one found in the city itself. The list shows that most of the electric charging stations currently along the proposed route are in the vicinity of Brisbane, Queensland.

Miles cited recent research that he said supports this super highway project. He noted that “5% of Queenslanders will consider an electric vehicle,” and the time frame that most of these survey respondents said is within 2 years. He implied that what might be stopping these locals from finally getting their own electric vehicle – whether it is a regenerative braking hybrid or a plug-in hybrid – is the low number of electric charging stations along the coast.

The electric super highway hopes to fix that.