Melbourne-based EV charging company JET Charge has launched a $24.9 million Charging as a Service Project, offering a new way for fleet operators to pay for EV charging infrastructure.
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The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is providing $12 million from the Driving the Nation Fund to support the delivery of the project.
Under the Charging as a Service (CaaS) model, JET Charge will install and maintain EV chargers at the customer’s site. Fleet operators will pay JET Charge a subscription fee for the service, similar to how consumers pay for streaming services.
The project is set to run for three years and will see the uptake of more than 3,100 new EVs with supporting charging infrastructure.
With fleets accounting for roughly half of new vehicle sales, they provide a valuable opportunity to reduce emissions on Australia’s roads. For small fleet operators, the upfront costs and ongoing complexity of installing and maintaining charging infrastructure are significant barriers to electrifying transport.
The CaaS model will allow small businesses to fully outsource their charging needs to JET Charge through a monthly bundled payment. JET Charge can aggregate demand from fleets to access economies of scale and provide a lower cost of charging to its customers.
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JET Charge CEO Tim Washington said, “I am extremely excited to be working with ARENA in launching this game-changing model for Australian fleets. We know that fleets are looking for a way to electrify, and that infrastructure is a key barrier. Our CaaS project will not only increase affordability, but also demonstrate what running private charging networks will look like at scale.”
