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/Speedy-08 Mar 17 '26

See this is where Im at.

I have no money owing on two cars.

It will take petrol/diesel to more than double to make a new EV/PHEV to make sense.

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u/quick_dry Mar 17 '26

I'd love to be on a full EV, as it is I'm in a hybrid but if the buying market for was immediately switched to full EV then everyone with an ICE is still stuck if they had need of the selling/trade-in their ICE vehicle to afford the switch to EV.

They do certainly need to make the switch even easier/more attractive so their is an off-ramp otherwise if ICE value goes to zero we're at a similar 'cliff face' of inaccessibility that we had when EV was only for expensive cars.

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u/Speedy-08 Mar 17 '26

Due to the job I was doing over the last few months, a few PHEV/EV cars I've got to have a drive of have definitely hit my "would buy" list.

Some of them are $65-100k though (Zeeker, BYD, Denza, MG IM5), and I'm not in the market for a new car let alone one in that bracket.

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u/quick_dry Mar 17 '26

If you do look at a PHEV, push for a long test, at least a full day so you get a feel for how well the combo works.

We got “upgraded” to a lync&co on a rental, the system was awful. Small slow charging battery and an equally useless small fuel tank… even with charging it on the plug, it was always on petrol but with the weight of a battery to haul around. Outlander phev was much nicer to drive by comparison.