Right: Electric cars have been around for over a century and, at one time, looked like overtaking the internal combustion-powered vehicle in popularity. Batteries, however, were still the heavy, inefficient lead-acid type, and cars like this gradually became a mere curiosity on the roads.
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Background information
(The information presented below has been abbreviated from a Wikipedia entry titled 'Plug-in electric vehicles in Australia'. The full text can be accessed at
Electric vehicles in Australia
The adoption of plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) in Australia is driven by customer demand due to the lack of government policies or monetary incentives to support the adoption and deployment of low or zero emission vehicles.
The Australian stock of EVs totalled over 6,000 units by early 2018. The Mitsubishi Outlander P-HEV was the country's top selling plug-in electric vehicle, with over 2,906 plug-in hybrid SUVs sold through March 2018. The electric Tesla Model X and Model 3 are Australia's second and third safest cars.
Victoria is Australia's most important EV market with the most electric vehicle purchases between 2011 and 2017 with a total of 1,324 car sales. Victoria also had the most electric vehicle chargers in the country. Similarly, Victoria's capital city Melbourne, had the highest concentration of electric vehicle chargers in Australia in 2017.Victoria had 403 electric vehicle depots in 2019 with another 31 expected to be constructed by the end of 2020. Victoria almost doubled its electric vehicle charger network between 2018 and 2019. Victoria also manufactures electric vehicles with a commercial electric vehicle manufacturing facility to be established in Victoria in 2021, producing 2,400 vehicles per year. The Victorian company SEA Electric also manufactures electric trucks and other vehicles for domestic and international markets. Overall, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania represent the largest markets in the country for electric car sales.
Growth and availability of electric vehicles
Electric vehicle sales doubled in Australia in 2019 compared to 2018. In 2019, the Electric Vehicle Council expected EV model choices to continue to expand which would promote a significant increase in EV sales in Australia. Model choice is expected to grow from 22 all-electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) available in 2019 to 31 by the end of 2020.
A National Electric Vehicle Strategy by the federal government is also being developed which is set to be released in mid-2020. The Coalition federal government has its carbon abatement policy anticipating electric vehicles to make up 50 percent of sales by 2030. Furthermore, government analysis in 2019 forecasted 50 percent of all new cars sold in Australia by 2035 will be electric on the current path. Another government forecast indicated the uptake of zero emissions vehicles in Australia would at least be at 27 percent by 2030.
Government incentives
As of July 2019, the Australian government offered a higher luxury tax threshold for qualifying low emissions vehicles and the state of Victoria and Australian Capital Territory offered incentives for purchasing and owning electric vehicles e.g. stamp duty exemptions and registration discounts.
The Victorian Government encourages the use of electric cars as part of its strategy to tackle climate change with a long-term target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The Victorian Government is also preparing a Zero Emissions Vehicle Roadmap to be released in mid-2020 to support the adoption of electric vehicles. However, the ACT offers the most financial and non-financial incentives for purchasing electric vehicles of any state in Australia.
Federal and state incentives to purchase EVs have been criticised as low compared to those available in many other countries.