Western Australia's "Electric Highway" goes live with fanfare, but glitches pile up more than a year on; state minister dodges questions on network expansion

According to Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports, the electric vehicle charging network that the Western Australian government launched with great fanfare in 2025 is failing repeatedly across remote areas. The network, which claims to span more than 7,000 kilometres across the state, runs from Mundrabilla on the Nullarbor Plain in the southeast to Kununurra in the East Kimberley, with 110 charging sites dotted along the route. Yet barely a year into operation, multiple sites have broken down or been offline for long stretches, leaving drivers grappling with severe range anxiety along highways hundreds of kilometres north of Perth.

The reliability of the charging network has grown more pressing as electric vehicle sales in Australia overtook sales of petrol and diesel cars for the first time in August 2026. According to Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports, however, the real experiences of multiple drivers stand in stark contrast to the state's publicity at launch.

Perth driver Michael Kerr drove an electric vehicle to and from Karijini National Park this year, a round trip of 2,700 kilometres. He told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the journey had to be planned around broken chargers, and that he reached one site with only 20 kilometres of range left. "We won't be taking this route again any time soon," Kerr said, "We're now quite wary of heading out into the countryside." Kerr has written to the state government about the experience.

Another Perth resident, Catherin Robinson, who had owned an electric vehicle for only two weeks before driving 1,500 kilometres to visit family in Karratha, described the trip as a "gamble," and was blunt: "Range anxiety is very, very real." She said that, with chargers scarce and frequently out of order, all of her plans to explore along the way had been scrapped: "there was no way it was going to be a spur-of-the-moment decision to drive an extra stretch."

In its 2026 State of EVs report, the independent Electric Vehicle Council gave the Western Australian government a score of 3 out of 10 across 26 indicators. The report noted that, despite the state's strong fiscal position, its support for charging infrastructure and for the electrification of passenger and commercial vehicles is weak.

The tourism industry feels that assessment in its own bottom line. According to Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports, Bill Tatchell, chief executive of the Western Australian Tourism Council's northwest division, warned that road travel is the backbone of the area's tourism industry, and as electric vehicle use rises, it must be ensured that "owning an electric vehicle does not become a reason not to visit the north." He stressed that, given the vast distances of the northwest, charger availability and reliability matter more than in metropolitan areas.

The state government's response when pressed has further exposed an evasive posture. Energy Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson, when directly asked whether she would consider expanding the network, did not give a straight answer, saying only that the state government had "connected more than 7,000 kilometres of Western Australia through 110 charging points," and adding that it had supported local organisations and businesses to install chargers at destinations across the state through three rounds of the Charge Up grant program.

Electric vehicle expert Dr Kai Li Lim, speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, pointed to a systemic failure in the upkeep chain. "We're starting to see chargers that are almost like tombstones in a car park," he said, "no one wants to take on the maintenance. A charger in the Pilbara is broken and the technician is on the east side; when will anyone be sent out to fix it?" Lim also noted that, when new chargers are built, there is no accompanying plan for ongoing maintenance, whether the investment is public or private. He cautioned that the value of remote-area charging networks also has to be measured against the backdrop of freight electrification.

From the fanfare at launch, to drivers forced a year or more later to count their remaining range down to the kilometre along thousands of kilometres of highway, to a minister's evasive response when pressed on expanding the network, what Western Australia's "electric highway" lays bare is a long-standing structural gap in infrastructure decision-making. Money for build-out is easy to come by, while operations, upkeep and sustained investment are routinely ignored, with the cost of transition ultimately falling on regional tourism operators and ordinary drivers.

It remains unclear whether the state government will commit further funding or adjust its rollout following the Electric Vehicle Council report. There is also no publicly available figure for the failure rate across the 110 charging points, with the current evidence drawn from individual driver cases and expert observation.