Electric Vehicles will become more reliable, affordable, and commonplace in Victoria under a Victorian Government plan to research and develop the technology locally.
Minister for Higher Education Gayle Tierney announced a $5.2 million investment into Supporting the Electrification of Victoria’s Future Fleet project at RMIT’s City Campus, in collaboration with Monash and La Trobe universities.
The ‘living lab’ will feature critical infrastructure like EV charging stations and regenerative grid and battery simulators and will be a space where researchers and industry can collaborate and test concepts in ‘real’ scenarios.
The project will support Victoria’s transition to a Zero Emission Fleet, including public transport, by developing reliable and affordable technology, strengthening the grid, exploring batteries and storage, creating a public data-repository and rolling out public awareness campaigns.
Victoria’s transport sector accounts for 25 per cent of the state’s emissions, which is why the Labor Government has rolled out a Zero Emissions Vehicle Roadmap, including all new buses being zero emission by 2025 and having half of all new car sales zero emission by 2030.
The living lab will be fully operational by mid-2023 and create 18 jobs – as well as delivering learning opportunities for students to train for the jobs of the future.
The $8.18 million project is a joint effort by the Victorian Government and RMIT, La Trobe and Monash universities alongside the City of Melbourne, C4NET, CitiPower and Siemens.
The project was one of many pitches from universities to the $350 million Victorian Higher Education State Investment Fund, supporting universities with capital works, research infrastructure projects and applied research focused on boosting Victoria’s productivity and economy as the state recovers from the coronavirus pandemic.
Source: Vic Government