To: The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese and Climate Change and Energy Minister, Chris Bowen.

The Australian Government is seeking to encourage the take up of Electric Vehicles in Australia as part of its strategies to reduce CO2 emissions.

We now have a reasonable network of EV chargers particularly in cities but, in the country, these are a bit more sparse and careful planning is required for a longer country trip.

There are two significant issues with access to EV chargers.

Firstly: Chargers require the use of proprietary apps to make payment for charging which requires the down load of the app if you encounter a company charger that you have not previously used. This can be an issue that prevents charging when the mobile data network coverage is weak or non-existent. Also if there is no network coverage you cannot charge as you cannot pay. Payment for fossil fuels at service stations can always be paid by credit card. The same should apply to EV charging.

Secondly: Tesla mostly restricts the use of their chargers to Tesla vehicles only.

We request the government take the following legislative action:

1. Require all EV charger providers to install credit card readers on their chargers to accept credit card payments at the charger as an alternative to requiring the use of their proprietary app for payment for charging.
   
   
2. Classify EV charging infrastructure as essential infrastructure and oblige all providers to provide access to all EVs irrespective of make and model.