The EV shift is on – now we need to build to keep up

Electric vehicle uptake is surging across the country. Now the race is on to build the required infrastructure to keep up with this transformative moment in our economic history. 

EV Sales in Australia and overseas

If you feel like you’re seeing more Teslas and sleek electric cars on our roads, you’d be right. Electric vehicles (EV) are now outselling hybrid vehicles, and surging as a category in Australia. 

The Australian Automobile Association’s EV index shows that in the first quarter of 2023, 58% of sales in the medium-sized category were EV, and overall sales in the EV category were up 50% on the previous quarter.

Globally, the trend is even more stark, with sales increasing more than 50 per cent from 2021 to 2022, making up a total of 14% of all new cars sold in the world.

The International Energy Agency predicts these sales will continue to increase, pushing EV sales to around 20% of the entire car sales market within a couple of years. This is a remarkable shift in a short period of time. 

As the Australian Automotive Association’s Managing Director Michael Bradley says – “the shift is on”.

Climate change + Australian politics

After decades of what has been coined ‘the climate wars’, in 2022 the Climate Change Bill enshrined into Australian law an emissions reduction target of 43 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050.

Rather than being pushed on us by our politicians, this commitment has been demanded by the Australian people. On top of the 2021 federal election result, the 2023 Lowy Institute Poll showed that 89% of Australians saw global warming as a problem that needed to be addressed. 

We finally have arrived at a moment of broad agreement as a country, where business, industry, farmers, community and conservation groups can work together to build Australia’s sustainable future.

Critically, this consensus and (relative) political stability has signalled to capital markets that Australian means business, and has given confidence to investors that Australia is committed to acting on climate change. 

Barriers to EV uptake

Yet, despite the optimism, we have a big challenge ahead of us to pave the path to net zero with the technology, infrastructure and adoption levels required to hit these targets. 

Light vehicles in Australia make up around 10% of our greenhouse gas emissions.

But unfortunately as many as 87% of Aussies are discouraged from buying an EV due to access to charging infrastructure and ‘range anxiety’. This is despite the lower running and servicing costs that go alongside the environmental benefits of an EV. 

Our number of charging points lags well behind the rest of the world, with the latest numbers putting us around 35 vehicles on the road per charging point, compared to 13 in the EU and 8 in China. 

The need here is plain to see – we must rapidly accelerate the installation of fast, reliable charging points in the community to support the stunning growth in demand for EVs. 

Where we lag behind the world in EV charging points, we lead in domestic solar PV, with the world's highest per capita uptake. More than 30% of Australian homes have solar installed, a doubling in the past five years. With owned-power generating capacity and abundant sunshine, many people will turn to charging their electric vehicles at home. 

This is great for homeowners, but what about the 30% of Aussies who rent their homes? The vast majority of solar installations are for owner-occupiers, where the homeowner can also enjoy the power generation capacity at home. Renters would be encouraged to switch to an EV if there was adequate public infrastructure to charge their vehicles at the local shopping centre or street corner. 

Similarly, an ever increasing proportion of Australians live in apartments. People who buy or rent apartments shouldn’t be left out of the conversation by providing charging infrastructure in apartment buildings. 

But again, out of challenge sprouts opportunity. 

In Germany, where more than 50% of the population live in apartments, a 2021 law called the “Building Electromobility Infrastructure Act (GEIG) ” requires that owners of any new apartment buildings with more than five parking spaces are required to include EV charging facilities. 

The precedent is there for policy makers and project developers to build with a vision for a future Australia where owning an EV is the norm, not the exception. 

However, to add complexity to the picture, this boom in EV sales could indeed trigger an increase in carbon emissions, unless we add sufficient renewable-energy capacity to meet the additional electricity demand expected from more electric cars.

Part of Australia’s commitment to net zero involves dramatically upscaling the share of renewable energy in the grid – from 27% today to 82% by 2030. 

So if you own an EV in 2030 and have made the wise decision to rent or buy in an apartment  building equipped with solar supported EV charging facilities, it’s conceivable that your trips to work and the supermarket and the weekend camping trips are being powered by the sun. 

Alongside the already fantastic outcome of near-emission free vehicles – renewable energy working in tandem with EVs will bring significant price relief for Australian households. 

More than any other time in the decades-long fight to combat climate change, we are on the cusp of something incredibly exciting. We now have the global leadership, the consensus, the policies, the technology and the economics in place to lead this transformation. 

This is not the responsibility of developed economies or governments or industry or individuals – it’s on all of us. We can take the steps needed to accelerate our shift to a low carbon economy, transition our energy sources from scarce, polluting fossil fuels to clean, renewable resources. We can all enjoy the benefits of cleaner energy, cleaner air and a brighter future. It’s on all of us to work together to make it happen. 

Note: this article was written for a client project that didn’t go ahead.

Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

Charlie Syme is a Marketing Communications Consultant and Fractional CMO from Melbourne, Australia. He’s worked in the impact and for-purpose space for years, and firmly believes that good storytelling is a key to making progress against the rapidly advancing climate change.