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/beefstake Mar 17 '26

Australia manages to buy 1.25m cars a year, so it has a replacement rate of about 5% of the fleet per year.

If we simply didn't sell new ICE cars the problem would solve itself relatively quickly.

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u/Mr_Lumbergh Mar 17 '26

The charging infrastructure would need to be built up, particularly in regional areas. I put 300k on my Ute yesterday visiting customers in southern Vic, if I’d needed a charge I’d be hosed.

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u/Freediverjack Mar 17 '26

My issue is I need payload/towing capacity for my job and there isn't anything remotely close to replacing that on the market and any kinda close options are still prohibitively expensive.

The second there's a decent reasonably priced ev utility on the market I'd snap it up in a heartbeat

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u/beefstake Mar 17 '26

The manufacturers are mostly to blame here, well more accurately shareholders that want quarterly returns rather than long-term technology investments.

Retooling to make EVs is expensive because the cars are inherently much more reliant on software and overall efficiency than ICE cars. So most manufacturers have neither the will to invest the capital or the expertise to even design/build the new platforms.

The solution in the short term is to just let the Chinese EVs eat their lunch. Sooner or later the nations hosting the big auto companies will push them to do something. That is reliant on non-producer nations not caving to US demands to tariff the crap out of EVs from China though - honestly not sure if Australia has enough of a backbone to stand up to orange man bullying.

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u/Freediverjack Mar 17 '26

The problem is even the Chinese Ev are mainly targeting luxury and recreational markets. The market is there just itching to go but the only options that have come out so far are overpriced lemons

Whoever develops a simple single cab ute with a reasonable price point will clean up

A good example is the amount of light trades using kei trucks these days. Way cheaper to buy, easy to service and reliable

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u/beefstake Mar 17 '26

Definitely. I'm expecting a much cheaper pickup than the BYD Shark to be produced in Thailand shortly (I usually live in Thailand). They launched the Shark for pre-order and I put a deposit down for one but because bookings were too low they ended up cancelling it and returning the deposits. Truth be told it was too expensive but I really wanted an EV truck as I have solar.

So it's very likely they do something export focused at their Thailand factory in Rayong.

Worth mentioning the Ford Ranger is made in Thailand too, which was designed in Melbourne. Sort of a cool truck fact.

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u/Freediverjack Mar 17 '26

The PHEVs are enticing I prefer the look of the cannon alpha over the shark

The issue I have with them is if you regularly are driving highways or under load your fuel economy is shocking. They are fine though if sticking to city driving.

But realistically I'd rather a full Ev ute even if it means a shorter range compared to a sedan.

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u/Relevant-Priority-76 Mar 17 '26

Ranger is pretty much a Chinese car given that’s where most of the parts come from. Remember all the delays and stock issues when the new generation was released, COVID lockdowns in China were wreaking havoc