Another ultra-rapid electric vehicle charger has been opened between Sydney and Melbourne, just in time for Christmas, and as electric car owners and their families start making annual holiday journeys along one of Australia’s busiest highways.

Electric vehicle network provider Chargefox opens the latest in a string of fast charging sites today at the key location just outside Goulburn, about 195 kilometres southwest of Sydney and 90 kilometres north-east of Canberra.

It is the third on the key route between Australia’s two largest capital cities, following Euroa and Barnawatha, part of a 22-strong network that Chargefox commenced rolling out in October 2018 and that has, according to Chargefox CEO Marty Andrews, powered 1 million carbon-free kilometres in 2019 alone.

Consisting of two 350kW ultra-rapid chargers and a 50kW fast charger, the new Goulburn site also joins Moe in Gippsland, Victoria which was opened on Tuesday and is the first to offer both CCS2 and CHAdeMO plugs on the 350kW units.

“Melbourne up to NSW will be the most travelled roads in the network,” Andrews tells The Driven.

“We’ve been working really hard to unlock that, and get Goulburn – and Moe – open in time for Christmas. Goulburn really connects that route between Sydney and Canberra, and it’s great to have both of them open in time for people to do those trips.”

To encourage drivers to stop and use the new site at Goulburn, which is located at 53 Sydney Road (at the Goulburn Gateway Service Station), Chargefox are offering fast charging totally free of cost up until the end of 2019.

Now that the Goulburn site is open for business, Andrews and his team can now concentrate on working to open a number of other sites that were announced as underway in October at Cooma, Karuah, Gundagai and Ballina.

However, due to the current bushfire situation in NSW – which NSW Liberal MP Matt Kean said at National Smart Energy Summit last Tuesday has been exacerbated by climate change – there may be a delay to opening new sites.

“There is a flurry [of site openings] coming over the summer,” says Andrews. “One thing we’re noting already from the energy providers is that given the bushfire we may have to wait while they concentrate on getting power to people’s homes. Which is fair enough.”

In the meantime, electric car owners will be able to continue using the 7 sites already open, the other 6 of which include Torquay and Melbourne’s Airport West in Victoria, as well as the Euroa and Barnawatha sites, Toombul in Queensland and the recently opened Zetland site in Sydney’s inner eastern suburbs.

Users of these sites will, up until January 5 go into a draw to win a free summer of charging, says Andrews.

We've now got more than 1,100 plugs across our network and to celebrate we're giving away 3 prize packs! Each includes 3 months of free charging & an #EV charging cable. To enter, simply charge at any of our chargers before 5th Jan. More details: https://t.co/rM9V4RjuVU pic.twitter.com/yQ6sBFPUDL — Chargefox (@Chargefox) December 5, 2019