The 5 Best Free EV Chargers in Hobart (Updated for 2026)
Hobart is a small city with a small free charging list, and one genuinely odd gap: there is no free DC fast charging anywhere in the metro area.
Every free charger in Hobart is AC, almost all of them are single-plug 22kW units around the CBD and waterfront, and most are owned by the business or council at the site rather than a national network. That means turning up and reading a sign rather than checking an app before you leave home.
The good news is that Tasmania is the easiest state in the country to charge in when you do have to pay. More on that at the end, because it genuinely changes how you should plan.
We went through every charger in our Tasmanian database, filtered for free, then threw out anything you cannot turn up and use as a member of the public. No staff-only bays. No hotel chargers.
First, what "free" actually means
Four things get called free in Australia, and only one is the real deal.
Genuinely free. The electricity costs nothing. You may still need an app or a tap to start the session. Free power, not free of admin.
Free power, paid parking. Hobart's main catch. Several free chargers sit inside paid council car parks, and Hobart parking is not cheap. One of our five carries this caveat explicitly.
Free but wrong connector. Hobart has free chargers running Type 1 J1772, an obsolete connector most modern EVs cannot use without an adaptor. See the section below.
Free with a daily quota. Not really a Hobart problem, since Jolt has no presence here, but worth knowing if you drive to the mainland.
Everything in our top five is genuinely free power on a Type 2 connector your car can actually use. Where parking costs money, we say so.
One tip: buy a single $5 Evie Pass and register it in the Chargefox app. One card, multiple networks, and it works when your phone is flat.
1. University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay
Churchill Avenue, Sandy Bay TAS 7005
Operator: site host | 2 plugs | 22kW AC, Type 2
The best free charger in Hobart on the numbers that matter: two plugs, a real charging speed, Type 2, fully public access, and no parking charge recorded against it.
Two bays sounds modest until you look at the rest of this list, where three of the five entries are single-plug. Twenty-two kilowatts adds roughly 100km of range an hour, so an hour or two here is a genuine charge rather than a token top up.
It sits on the UTAS Sandy Bay campus on Churchill Avenue, about 3km south of the CBD. The campus has cafes, a library, a gym and sports fields, and it is a short walk down to Sandy Bay beach and the Royal Yacht Club. It is a pleasant place to leave a car for a couple of hours.
One thing to keep an eye on: UTAS has a long-running and contested plan to relocate much of its operation from Sandy Bay into the Hobart CBD. That does not affect you today, but it is worth checking the charger is still listed before you build a routine around it.
How to start a session: Host-controlled rather than a national network, so check the signage on the unit or the PlugShare comments. Campus chargers are commonly free vend, where you plug in and it starts, or QR code activated. Type 2 sockets, so bring your own cable.
2. Brighton Council Chambers, Old Beach
1 Tivoli Road, Old Beach TAS
Operator: Chargefox | 1 plug | 22kW AC, Type 2
The only free charger in the Hobart region run by a proper national network, and that matters more than the plug count suggests.
With Chargefox you can check live availability in the app before you drive out, you know exactly how to start the session, and there is a support line if something goes wrong. Every other entry on this list is host-owned, which means you find out whether it works when you arrive.
It is at the Brighton Council Chambers in Old Beach, about 20km north of Hobart on the Derwent, just off the Midland Highway. That makes it a genuinely useful stop if you are heading north toward Launceston, or if you live in the northern suburbs and want a free top up without going into the city.
Council-owned free chargers are also the most durable kind. Councils install them as a public service rather than a business, so they are far less likely to quietly switch to paid once demand picks up.
One plug, so check the app first..
How to start a session: Chargefox app with a credit or debit card linked, or tap a Chargefox RFID card (about $9.90 in the app) or a registered Evie Pass. A card must be on file even when using RFID.
3. Hunter Street, Hobart waterfront
Hunter Street, Hobart TAS 7000
Operator: site host | 1 plug | 22kW AC, Type 2
A single free 22kW plug on Hunter Street, which is about as good a place to spend an hour as Hobart offers.
This is the old warehouse strip on the waterfront between Constitution Dock and Macquarie Point. The Drunken Admiral, Landscape Restaurant, Old Wharf Restaurant and the MACq 01 hotel are all on this short stretch, with Salamanca Place and the Saturday market a ten minute walk south.
Twenty-two kilowatts means an hour of lunch is around 100km of range. For a tourist doing the waterfront on foot, that is close to ideal.
The obvious risk is that it is one plug in the busiest part of the city. Do not build a plan around it, but check it if you are heading that way anyway.
How to start a session: Host-controlled. Check the signage or PlugShare. Type 2 socket, bring your own cable.
4. Davey Street, Hobart
Davey Street, Hobart TAS 7000
Operator: site host | 1 plug | 22kW AC, Type 2
A single free 22kW plug on Davey Street, one of Hobart's two main CBD arterials, running down from the city to the waterfront.
You are within a couple of minutes' walk of TMAG, Constitution Dock, Franklin Wharf and the bottom end of the CBD retail strip. It is arguably the most central free charger in the city.
The thing to watch here is parking, not power. The Davey Street area is served by the Dunn Place and Fisherman's Market car parks, both paid, with Dunn Place carrying a three hour limit and rates around $5 to $6 an hour. Hobart's multi-storey car parks generally offer a cheaper first hour and no three hour cap, so where you leave the car matters as much as where you plug in. Read the sign on the actual bay before you walk off.
How to start a session: Host-controlled. Check the signage or PlugShare.
5. Evans Street, Hobart
10 Evans Street, Hobart TAS 7000
Operator: site host | 2 plugs | 22kW AC, Type 2
Two free 22kW plugs near the northern end of the waterfront, close to Macquarie Point and the Hunter Street precinct.
Two bays at 22kW would normally push this higher up the list. It sits at number five for one reason: our records explicitly note that usual parking charges apply. The electricity is free, the parking is not. That is a perfectly fair arrangement and still good value if you were going to pay for parking anyway, but it is not free charging in the sense most people mean.
Use it deliberately. If you are already paying to park in the waterfront precinct for a few hours, this is 200km of free range attached to a cost you were already incurring. If you are hunting for genuinely free charging, the Sandy Bay or Hunter Street options are better.
How to start a session: Host-controlled. Check the signage or PlugShare.
The Tasmanian advantage nobody mentions
Hobart's free charging is thin. Tasmania's paid charging is the best in the country to actually use, and that changes how you should plan.
Electric Highway Tasmania accepts the Chargefox app and Chargefox RFID cards like everyone else, but it also supports direct contactless payment at the charger with an ordinary credit or debit card, including Apple Pay and Google Pay. That was a deliberate design decision to support tourists in hiring EVs.
Almost no other Australian network does this. Chargefox, Evie, Exploren, Everty and Jolt all require an app or an RFID card. If your phone dies in regional Tasmania, you can still charge. If your phone dies in regional New South Wales, often you cannot.
So the honest advice for Hobart: charge at home wherever possible, treat the free chargers above as opportunistic top ups when you happen to be nearby, and relax about the paid network, because it is genuinely the easiest in Australia to walk up and use.
Before you drive there
Free is a status, not a permanent feature. Hosts switch to paid once demand picks up, and several records behind this list are a few years old.
Four of the five above are host-owned with no operator recorded, which means the access method is unconfirmed. Check PlugShare or the Chargefox app for live pricing, availability and connector type before you go.
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