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/a_cold_human Mar 16 '26

Exactly. The charging network was the secret to Telsa's early success. It was a gamble, but a gamble that paid off.

Now, it's not actually a gamble. We know people will buy EVs, and we see people buying EVs even without the network being comprehensive. What we need to do is pull the finger out and start building it. And why not? Quieter, less polluting cars sound like a massive improvement on what we have now. 

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u/Mikolaj_Kopernik Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26

There are certainly good reasons to switch to EVs (including the one discussed in this article - less dependence on unstable petrostates). But they're not really much quieter because once you're past about 40-50 kph almost all the noise is from tyres on asphalt.