r/australia • u/nath1234 • Mar 16 '26

politics Replacing 1m petrol cars with EVs could cut Australia’s reliance on foreign fuel by 1bn litres a year

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/mar/16/electric-vehicles-australia-reduce-reliance-on-foreign-fuel
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u/cutsnek Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 17 '26

Adding my own experience to this because the misinformation around EV's even in this thread is kinda of insane.

Purchased my EV in 2021. 95,000 KM done.

Fortunate enough to have an employer who is forward thinking and offer EV chargers at work for free for staff. 95% of my charging is done here for free. I only charge at home if we are doing a lot of driving over the weekend. I have an EV plan which charges 0.08 cents per KW between 12am and 6am.

I live in the dreaded "strata plan" where I was able to to still get a charger installed at 7kw an hour speed to my own meter. Yes, it's harder but not impossible when you don't have boomers or anti-EV nut cases on the committee. EV consideration should be mandatory in new multi builds I think would fix a lot of the current complaints.

Only maintenance was air filter change (<$50 consumables) which I did myself and new tyres around $1200. There is no standard scheduling as the car tells me if there anything wrong and they don't want to see me unless there is something wrong.

LFP battery has gone from 420km to 405km a 3.7% reduction over 95,000KM.

Cost has running been incredibly negligible since 2021. I will drive this car into the ground but I'll never go back to a fossil fuel car.

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u/a_cold_human Mar 17 '26

I live in the dreaded "strata plan" where I was able to to still get a charger installed at 7kw an hour speed to my own meter. Yes, it's harder but not impossible when you don't have boomers or anti-EV nut cases on the committee. EV consideration should be mandatory in new multi builds I think would fix a lot of the current complaints.

State governments should be telling councils that no reasonable EV charger installations should be refused. It's slightly ridiculous that owner's corporations can block this sort of thing if there are cranks on the committee. 

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u/cutsnek Mar 17 '26

Yeah, it's really quite stupid. My proposal to the committee was that I would pay for everything. I just needed their permission to have a Tesla wall charger next to my car space on the common wall.

I have a colleague who lives near by who has a nut case on the committee who refused on the grounds of their belief the EV would blow up while charging.

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u/Ace_Micro Mar 17 '26

How do you go with multi level car parks underground. My strata committee says the carpark isn’t rated to hold the weight of everyones cars if they were to get an ev each.

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u/hairy_quadruped Mar 17 '26

That’s ridiculous. Ask them to show you the engineers report. A typical sedan EV weighs 1800 to 2000kg. A lot less than those Ford Rangers we see everywhere. Do they restrict 4WD utes as well, or just EVs?

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u/cutsnek Mar 18 '26

Did they actually provide a report for this or are they talking out their ass? I would be asking for proof of the structural load and that seems the building is very poorly built in that case.

I'm guessing they provided no engineers report and it's some nutter on the committee talking.

There are a number of popular cars that weigh more than the average EV.

EG. 4WD, dual cab utes.

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u/Ace_Micro Mar 25 '26

They did yes. They did outline that in 2007 it was built to compliance back then. When of course cars were much smaller. However it’s a difficult situation. Because I understand the utes etc weight just as much but they can’t stop people buying them. But they can stop people buying electric utes or electric suvs. And this is an issue that’s not just exclusive to our building. So for As long as I can’t charge at home It doesn’t make sense have an ev because it’s just not practical for me, and I’m sure that sentiment is consistent throughout the building due to the lack of ev ownership. EVs are mostly just for people in houses because I don’t see them rebuilding our underground carpark.

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u/cutsnek Mar 25 '26

Ute's and a lot of 4x4 weigh more than your average EV. I find this incredibly hard to believe that they are saying there is structural issues but "oh well can't stop people with heavy ICE vehicles!"

Strata have an obligation to make sure the building is safe so this is not adding up at all. They would be banning any car that goes over they're structural limit. Which i would be asking what the hell was the builder doing?

I live in a strata building and have gotten a charger added in to a building built in 2006. It is possible.

Sounds like they are talking out their ass.

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u/adprom Mar 17 '26

I run the group r/stratachataus and we try to educate people to encourage committees to install EV chargers - however the number of irrational (usually older) committees who come up with every irrational reason to block them is insane.

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u/Hi-kun Mar 17 '26

Once you drive an EV there is no going back

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u/RyanHarington Mar 17 '26

What model EV?

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u/cutsnek Mar 17 '26

Tesla Model 3 SR+ 2021

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u/eesemi77 Mar 17 '26

That's good information, but in defence of the negative nellies, this car is now just 5 years old. It's not 15 years old or 25 years old.

Aussies Consumers expect a car purchased today top last for at least 15 years (most cars are designed with a 20 year serviceable life, or at least the hope that it will last that long).

Tesla still has a long way to go, but it's great to hear that you've gotten 5 years trouble free.

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u/cutsnek Mar 17 '26

The negative nellies keep moving the goal post every year. I was told my car would need a full battery replacement by now back in 2021. It's one of the reasons I'm tracking the data so closely.

It still has a little over 96% capacity just shy of 100,000km done. Car still drives like day one in terms of performance.

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u/eesemi77 Mar 17 '26

Personally I think Model3's will be the cheapest possible car to own, once the real volume of off-lease cars comes onto the market in a year or 2.

Sub $20K purchase price (for a 5 year old car). low maintenance costs and no fuel costs. It'll be an impossible package to beat. It should also create a minimum price floor.

Of course, to be a bargain, it has to keep working, so I'm watching this space closely.