Ampol agrees to buy the Evie charging network for $225 million

Ampol has agreed to buy Evie Networks, one of Australia’s large public electric vehicle charging businesses, for a purchase price of $225 million. The buyer is Ampol Energy Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ampol Limited (ASX code ALD). The seller company is Fast Cities Australia Pty Ltd, which operates the Evie Networks brand.

Ampol announced the share sale agreement on 1 October 2026. Completion has not been occurred. The purchase still needs clearance from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, plus other customary conditions. Ampol is targeting completion in the first half of 2027. Until approval is obtained and the deal completes, Ampol and Evie will keep operating independently.

What the purchase price covers

The $225 million figure is the purchase price Ampol has stated for 100 per cent of Fast Cities Australia Pty Ltd. It is not a completed takeover, and it is not an Ampol statement that the ACCC has already cleared the deal. Ampol’s ASX release says the acquisition will be fully debt-funded, that the company intends to keep its current Baa1 investment-grade credit rating, and that the transaction is expected to have a nominal impact on leverage.

Ampol is targeting about $10 million in mostly cost synergies within three years after completion. It anticipates breakeven EBITDA from the combined charging business in 2028, which it describes as the first full calendar year after completion on this timetable. A separate earnings line in the same release is wider than the chargers alone. Ampol says the combined business, meaning its Energy Solutions unit plus Evie Networks and subject to ACCC clearance, is anticipated to reach annualised EBITDA of $30 million including synergies within three years after completion, with double-digit yearly growth after that. Full integration is expected to take about three years from completion.

Charging bays and sites Ampol has published

Ampol says the deal is expected to add more than 1,030 EV charging bays and to create a combined platform of approximately 1,425 bays across more than 400 sites. The ASX release dates those network counts to 29 September 2026. On completion, Ampol expects the combined AmpCharge and Evie networks to be one of Australia’s largest public EV charging platforms. That is Ampol’s wording. The company has not said in these releases that it would be the single largest operator, and it has not published a comparison with any other named network.

Ampol also says Evie brings we sites, a weighted average lease expiry of about 10 years, and established grid connections, with some sites having spare grid capacity. Its description of Evie is a national set of fast and ultra-fast chargers in urban, regional and highway locations, plus charging solutions for fleets, vehicle makers, governments and retail partners. These releases do not publish a kilowatt rating for every bay, a plug-type split, or a state-by-state site list, so those details are not stated here.

Why Ampol says the timing fits

In its media release, Ampol says electric vehicles have exceeded 20 per cent of new cars sold in Australia on average over the last five months. That is Ampol’s statement about the market around this deal, not a separate official sales table reproduced here.

Managing director and chief executive Matt Halliday said EV charging for Ampol is a question of disciplined investment at the right time, watching customer behaviour, EV uptake, site economics, grid connections and the wider charging network. He said public charging is a precondition for broad electric vehicle adoption and that long distances between chargers in Australia can feed range anxiety and put some buyers off an EV. He also said a substantial portion of Australian households have no practical way to charge at home, while public chargers matter for fleets, rideshare operators and longer trips.

On Ampol’s own AmpCharge network, Halliday said utilisation has risen year on year, with charging sessions up 116 per cent and energy supplied up 120 per cent in the first half of 2026. Ampol names Evie’s principal shareholder, Trevor St Baker AO, as a pioneer of Australia’s public charging industry. The ASX release adds that Ampol sees further growth potential through its fleet customer relationships and that independent analysis it cites treats public DC fast charging as the largest value pool in Australia’s battery electric charging market, still under-developed relative to global peers.

What drivers should not assume yet

Nothing in the 1 October announcements says that Evie prices, apps, memberships or site branding change this week. The networks stay separate until regulatory approval and completion. Drivers planning a trip should still check the charger they intend to use, because availability, speed and price are not reset by a signed sale agreement.

Home charging remains the main cost lever for many private owners. Our guide to home EV charging costs and speeds in Australia sets out typical household options besides public fast charging. For a wider cost comparison, see petrol, hybrid and electric running costs in Australia.

Shoppers weighing a first EV can start with the cheapest electric cars on sale in Australia, or with electric SUVs under $60,000. Public charging access still depends on where you drive, not only on who owns a network.

The next formal step Ampol has named is ACCC clearance. Until that lands, and until completion in the targeted first half of 2027, the $225 million agreement is a conditional purchase of Evie, not a merged national charger map.