The Iran war has inadvertently driven electric vehicles onto centre stage and swept away many of the fears that kept the technology a fringe interest and most Australian motorists loyal to petrol and diesel.
However, there are not enough charging stations to meet current demand, let alone the expected massive uptick in EV sales if manufacturers can deliver product to Australia.
The global surge in fuel prices has prompted a rush of interest in the electric vehicle market, with EV makers and dealers reporting a huge increase in customer inquiries. Sales climbed by 50 per cent in March, according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, and EV rentals have also boomed. There are currently about 370,00 EVs on Australian roads and the Electric Vehicle Council estimated that, with government policy reforms, there could be 5 million by 2035.
Until the Middle East war, EVs had a chequered history. Often more expensive, there were concerns about range and refuelling times, charging stations were as rare as hen’s teeth in too many places, insurance was more costly and the motoring magazines, while warming to the technology, kept up a steady drumbeat of disadvantages.
Despite the negatives, many of those who took the plunge have become enthusiasts, and there is no doubt EVs are more climate-friendly than those using fossil fuels.
But, amid the political acrimony about net zero and environmental impacts, governments were slow to endorse the new technology and, at a federal level, spent a lot of time and energy on how to address the decline in revenue with the new technology because the fuel excise levied on petrol and diesel is ostensibly spent on road maintenance.
There are ways to make up the shortfall. A fixed road-user charge is the fairest and simplest way to do that, but governments need to provide the wherewithal so that motorists can get adequate access charging their EVs.
NRMA had started rolling out charging stations in regional NSW a decade ago before uniting with the federal government to establish a national network in regional areas. But it has barely touched the sides.
Electricity network providers are lobbying the Minns government to scrap rules preventing them from entering the EV charging market, pointing to a swath of suburbs across Sydney which have little access to public chargers.
The Minns government belatedly announced 1000 new EV chargers will arrive in NSW in the next two years, and an existing fleet incentive scheme, which has helped more than 240 businesses and other organisations buy more than 5600 EVs, will be expanded to assist in the purchase of medium-sized trucks. The government will also invest in training for 2000 regional mechanics, so country drivers can have their vehicles safely looked after closer to home.
In the meantime, motorists are left frustrated. The dearth of charging stations has even created an EV-specific antisocial behaviour: called “ICE-ing”, drivers of internal combustion vehicles are parking in spots set up for EV charging.
Governments encourage the uptake of EVs but have not bothered to put the infrastructure in place to cope with the expected surge that has now been turbocharged – a classic case of putting the car before the horse.
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