Tasmanian tourism operators can now get $2,500 a charger from the government to install electric vehicle chargers for overnight guests.
Tourism Minister Roger Jaensch launched the $250,000 Electric Vehicle Destination Charging Grant Program at The Cove in Devonport today.
Small and medium-sized operators can apply for funding for up to four chargers.
The first round offers $125,000 and closes on August 31, with a second round planned for next year.
Jaensch said more than one in five new cars sold in Australia in June was electric and the country’s top-selling new vehicle was an EV.
He wants visitors to charge where they stay, rather than plan their holidays around public fast-charging stations.
“We want to see more of our tourism operators who are selling an overnight stay also offering an overnight charge,” he said.
“More visitors are choosing electric vehicles for their holidays and we want Tasmania to remain a destination where they can travel with confidence.”
The Cove managing director Kim Robinson has two chargers, installed with help from an earlier government emissions reduction grant and some of her own money.
“We like our guests to be able to relax, stay, plug their car in and not have to worry about having to find [somewhere to charge] the following day,” she said.
Asked whether she would have installed the chargers without government support, Robinson said she probably would have.
West by North West chair Cyndia Hilliger, who runs a tourism business at Wynyard, said the funding was the right size for a first round.
She said chargers helped attract visitors. When she installed hers 10 years ago, she saw only one or two EV drivers a year. Now she sees many more.
“The maths is simple. You install these kind of chargers and you get more visitors,” she said.
Jaensch could not say how much of a charger’s cost the grant would cover or how much extra tourism it might generate.
“We’ll find out as we go what the demand has been,” he said.
