NSW Parliamentary Report Lists 18 Recommendations to Fix EV Charging Pain Points

The NSW EV charging report from a lower house committee lists 18 recommendations to improve electric vehicle charging, covering apartments, regional signage, network connection red tape, uptime rules and workforce training. Updated 6 August 2026.

Committee authors tie government policy and targeted support to an equitable rollout as EV sales accelerate. The document is a policy brief, not a new map of Chargefox or Evie cabinets.

On 6 August 2026, The Driven summarised the findings. Standing committee members on Transport and Infrastructure included three Labor MPs, one Liberal and one Teal independent.

Five themes in the 18 recommendations

Eighteen items group around friction that already shows up on trip-planning apps:

1. Apartments and public housing: policies and guidance to support EV charger installation in new and existing strata and social housing, including a push to mandate EV-ready infrastructure rather than leaving every owners corporation to invent a cable-run fight.
2. Public charger placement: technical help to locate and signpost chargers, with incentives for rural and regional sites, including co-location at petrol stations and truck stops so a Hume or Newell stop isn’t a blank pin.
3. DNSP red tape: standardise connection costs and timelines from distribution network service providers, with regular public reporting on fees and delays. The Driven notes those quotes regularly kill otherwise finished sites.
4. Reliability and pricing transparency: minimum uptime expectations and clear public pricing at chargers, modelled on rules the UK already runs.
5. Workforce skills: upskilling electricians and mechanics to install and maintain EV supply equipment, with formal training pathways, including for regional trades.

Many ideas already exist in pieces elsewhere in Australia or overseas. The committee’s job was to pull them into one reference NSW ministers can answer.

Apartments, signage and work already on the books

Strata residents still fight body-corporate battles over who pays for a cable run to a basement bay. The report treats that as a policy gap, not a manners problem. The ACT commissioned “EV ready developments” work in 2021 for new and existing apartments. NSW has trialled apartment charging grants and, more recently, released a public signage standard so drivers can actually find a legitimate bay.

Scaling those pieces, not reinventing them, is the committee’s argument. Public housing is in the same bucket as private strata: if the building never gets a circuit, the public DC network has to carry overnight charging it was never designed for.

Regional signage and petrol-station co-location sit in the same theme. A Chargefox or Evie pin that isn’t marked from the highway is a missed session. A truck-stop site that never got a DNSP quote is a pin that never existed.

DNSP delays, uptime and the TAFE bottleneck

Calls to standardise distribution-network connection costs have followed high-power cabinets for years. The Driven’s summary says timelines and the inability to get a firm power estimate are a regularly cited reason otherwise complete sites stall, or get abandoned.

Uptime and price stickers are the driver-facing half of the same story. A CCS cabinet that is “online” in an app and dead on the ground erodes confidence faster than a single bad road trip. UK-style minimum uptime and published tariffs are the template the committee wants NSW to adapt.

TAFE already offers accredited charger-installation courses for electricians, plus EV mechanic qualifications and smaller skill sets for existing mechanics. Instructor shortages limit how often those courses run, especially outside the capitals. The training recommendations try to close that gap rather than invent a new certificate from scratch.

What happens next

Reports don’t install chargers. Implementation depends on the NSW government response, DNSP rule changes, and whether operators accept uptime mandates. The Driven’s author argued delay would waste momentum given recent jumps in Australian EV uptake, and noted NSW already has a record of grants for charging.

Until those recommendations become rules, plan around today’s network: use our charger locations hub, carry backup apps (Chargefox, Evie, NRMA), and read public EV charging Australia for connector and kW habits while policy catches up. Official committee material sits with Parliament of NSW.

Frequently Asked Questions