How we source and verify

This site exists because so much Australian EV charging content is confidently wrong. That's only worth fixing if we hold ourselves to a higher standard than the sites we're frustrated by — so here's exactly how we work.

The source hierarchy

We prefer sources in this order, and we tell you which one a claim rests on:

  1. Manufacturer Australian spec sheets. The car maker's own AU document, stating the number outright.
  2. Australian standards and government or network documents. AS 60038, AS/NZS 3000, distribution network connection rules.
  3. Independent measurement. Owners who have measured actual charging rates over OBD. Often more reliable than a brochure.
  4. Reputable Australian motoring press and specialist databases. CarExpert, Zecar, CarsGuide, WhichCar, EV Database.
  5. Nothing else. SEO aggregator sites are not sources, however confident they sound.

What "verified" means here

A car's onboard charger rating is marked verified only when we've confirmed both the kilowatts and the phase capability against a source in tiers 1–4 above, and we link that source in the table. Anything else carries an Unverified badge.

We'd rather tell you we don't know than present a guess as a fact. Of the 42 variants currently listed, 39 are source-verified.

We show the maths

Every number our calculator produces is computed live from the physics, not looked up from a table someone typed once. You can open "Show the maths" on any result and check every step. If our arithmetic is wrong, it should be possible for you to catch us at it.

The calculation engine is covered by an automated test suite that pins the headline Australian figures — 7.36 kW at 32 A single-phase, 11.09 kW at 16 A three-phase, 22.17 kW at 32 A three-phase — along with the edge cases that are easy to get wrong.

Things we deliberately don't publish

This is the part most sites skip. These are claims we went looking to confirm, couldn't, and therefore left out — even though including them would have made for tidier copy.

"About 30% of Australian homes have three-phase power"

You'll see this quoted widely. We could not find a source for it — not the Electric Vehicle Council, not any distribution network, not the AEMC, not the ABS. It appears to originate on aggregator sites with no underlying data, and then gets laundered into credibility by republication.

We say only what's supportable: three-phase is a minority of existing housing stock, more common in newer builds, larger homes and some rural properties. If you have a real source for a figure, please send it to us.

"NSW and Victoria require approval above 20 A single-phase / 40 A three-phase"

Also widely repeated. We checked the primary connection documents for Ausgrid, Endeavour, Essential, CitiPower/Powercor, Jemena, United Energy and AusNet. None publishes that threshold. They deliberately use site-specific assessment language instead. So we describe what those networks actually say, and name the three networks — Energex/Ergon, SA Power Networks and Western Power — that do publish clear rules.

"AS/NZS 3000 Section 7.9 covers EV charging"

Section 7.9 is the New Zealand clause. The Australian EV provisions live in Appendix P and Clause 2.10.2.2. Publishing 7.9 as the Australian requirement would simply be an error, and it's one we see often.

Where we're honest about uncertainty

  • Kia MY26 EV6 and EV9. Sources give both 10.5 kW and 11 kW, and no primary Kia Australia document settles it — their AU brochures are image-based PDFs. We list the better-supported figure and say it's contested.
  • BYD Dolphin. The available figures are internally inconsistent (the cheaper trim appearing to out-charge the dearer one) and BYD's own brochure doesn't state AC kilowatts at all. We've left it out rather than guess.
  • Volvo EX30. Overseas sources list a 22 kW charger on Ultra models; Australian owners report Volvo Australia caps all AU cars at 11 kW. We use 11 and flag the discrepancy.
  • Consumption figures. Where the Australian Automobile Association's Real-World Testing Program has measured a car, we use their number. Otherwise we use a segment estimate and label it an estimate.

Prices and rebates go stale

Hardware pricing and government incentives move constantly. Everything on this site carries a "last reviewed" date. If that date is old, treat the dollar figures as indicative and check before you buy. We'd rather show you the date than pretend the number is eternal.

Corrections

If we've got something wrong, we want to know and we'll fix it. That's not a formality — a database like ours is only useful if it's right, and owners of these cars know things the brochures don't say. Get in touch.

Money

How we make money, and what we do to stop it bending what we tell you, is set out in full on our disclosure page.