29 September 2022

The South Australian government is marking World EV Day on Thursday 29th September by showcasing some of the inaugural organisations who have taken the EV Fleet Pledge.

South Australia continues to showcase world leadership in renewable energy as it shepherds the transition from fossil fuels to electric powered vehicles.

Businesses, local and state government fleets, universities, metro taxi and ride share services are all invited to take the pledge and implement a transition to electric vehicles for their fleets where appropriate to do so.

The state government has pledged to move its fleet of more than 6,800 vehicles to electric, leading by example to encourage other organisations to join the Fleet Pledge program and commit to playing an important role in achieving our target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while also unlocking electric vehicle availability and affordability for consumers.

Fleet Pledge will provide decision-makers and fleet managers with a hub of information, allowing them to learn from each other and draw on experiences to better shape their knowledge and expectations of EVs.

Already South Australia leads the world in renewable energy - with its abundance of wind and sun, and the development of the $593 million Hydrogen Jobs Plan aimed at creating jobs for the future and securing the state’s energy supply for generations to come.

Organisations who have already committed to the pledge include Flinders University, The City of Adelaide, The City of Port Adelaide Enfield, Marion City Council, the City of Charles Sturt, Interleasing Australia, the RAA, SA Power Networks and Telstra.

Reducing the number of vehicles powered by traditional fuels will go a long way to helping South Australia reach its target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Quotes attributable to Energy and Mining Minister Tom Koutsantonis

I would like to acknowledge and thank the inaugural Fleet Pledge members for taking action and playing a very real part in helping our state to reach our carbon emissions targets.

As leaders in their industry, their innovation and influence set a clear demonstration to others of the opportunities and benefits of the program as we navigate our EV transition.

The update of EV fleets will also help South Australians make electric vehicles their car of choice in the near future. As a standard practice, fleets generally renew their vehicles every 3–5 years, thereby unlocking electric vehicle availability for the community and encouraging affordable purchase of near-new EVs and helping consumers.

Quotes attributable to Robert Stobbe, Chief Executive SA Power Networks

As the South Australian electricity distributor, SA Power Networks understands the tremendous opportunity that the electrification of road transport presents, not only in reducing carbon emissions and electricity costs, but in the broader range of social, environmental and economic benefits to the community that electric vehicles provide.

We recognise the role that fleet operators can play in helping to develop and accelerate the market for electric vehicles in South Australia.

We introduced 12 plug-in hybrid vehicles into our fleet in 2017 and, as new models have become available over the last 12 months, we have recently transitioned five of these to all-electric vehicles and have three more on order. We’re also developing plans to transition our fleet to all-electric in line with the broad objectives of our stakeholders.

Quotes attributable to Mark Borlace, Future Mobility Specialist, RAA

RAA believes the electrification of transport is a vital step towards a decarbonised transport system and a more sustainable, and liveable South Australia.

We’re proud to be one of the State Government’s EV Fleet Pledge foundation partners and are committed to growing our fleet of electric vehicles.

This partnership, along with the upcoming statewide EV charging network rollout, demonstrates some of the many ways RAA is preparing for our state’s electric future.

Quotes attributable to Flinders University Vice-President (Corporate Services) Mark Gregory

Flinders University is electrifying its fleet of vehicles as part of a range of emissions reductions and sustainability initiatives we’ve set out in our 2025 Sustainability Plan. Our Bedford Park campus is already powered by 100% renewable energy so our EV fleet is now charging every day on sun and wind – it is both cleaner and lower cost.

The vehicles are also reliable and need almost zero maintenance – so the move is proving very practical as a fleet operator.

Flinders is embracing the EV Fleet Pledge and we are driving further innovation by launching a trial of 20 bi-directional 'vehicle-to-grid' chargers. We are working with the South Australian Government’s Electric Vehicle Smart Charging Trial and we are procuring EV vehicles with bi-directional capabilities.

This initiative will ultimately construct a circa-650kW 'virtual battery' on our campus using the vehicles, smart charging stations, and vehicle-to-grid technology. The vehicles, which aren’t typically on the road in the early evenings, will export some of their spare battery capacity into the grid, just when South Australia’s electricity demand is high and solar production is down.

Scale this up and our cars will be providing our electricity when otherwise it would be generated from burning natural gas.

Even after securing a favourable long-term 100% renewable power purchasing agreement, we have found our large-scale on-site solar installations reduce our daytime peak demand and provide a positive financial return – it has been an extremely good investment. If we can now use vehicles to provide some storage, we can further match our local energy production to our demand.

Quotes attributable to City of Adelaide CEO Clare Mockler

The City of Adelaide is proud to be an inaugural member of the EV Fleet Pledge program.

More than half of our passenger vehicles are now fully electric, after adding ten Hyundai Ioniqs to the fleet at the beginning of this year.

This week our City Operations team took delivery of the first fully-electric Hino truck in South Australia, the Hino SEA 300-85.

We are continuing to improve our community infrastructure, providing 42 EV charging stations across the city and North Adelaide with the first hour of charging free to the public.

The City of Adelaide is powered by 100% renewable electricity, so when people charge their cars in the city it means they’re essentially run on wind and solar power.