Along with a bunch of facts and figures, a new report on the state of electric vehicles in Australia in 2025 contains recommendations on how to put the pedal to the metal on EV uptake.
How Is Australia’s EV Uptake Tracking?
The Electric Vehicle Council’s (EVC’s) State of EVs 2025 report indicates 72,758 Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) were purchased in the first six months of 2025. This was up 24.4% on the same period in 2024 and a new record.
Electric vehicles accounted for 12.1% of all new car sales, up from 9.61% in 20241. In 2022, EVs made up less than 4% of new car sales in Australia.
There were 410,000 EVs in the national vehicle fleet as of September 2025 says the EVC.
Moving from famine just a few years ago to more a feast in terms of vehicle choices, 153 EV models are now available in Australia (94 BEVs, 59 PHEVs), up from 123 in June 2024. But there are still some segments where choice is lacking.
Infrastructure Charging Ahead
1,272 fast-charging locations are in place across the country (up 20% on June 2024) and 4,192 public charging plugs of ≥ 24 kW capacity — a 22% increase.
But Australians still primarily charge at home and while not included in the EVC’s report, hard-wired home EV charging options have also been improving over the past year. SolarQuotes’ home EV charger comparison page lists models and variants from dozens of brands, ranging in estimated price (hardware only) from $750 (ZJ Beny) to a touch over $2,000 for the Enphase IQ EV Charger 2.
While installation isn’t cheap — most will pay $1000 – $1,500 for installation on top of the hardware cost — a hard-wired home EV charger is faster and offers more control options than devices plugged directly into a power outlet; although these suit some EV owners. A smart hard-wired device is also a perfect companion for a suitably sized solar power system.
Accelerating Australia’s EV Uptake
Australia’s transport sector is currently the nation’s third largest emitter, accounting for around 22% of Australia’s emissions. According to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, passenger and light commercial vehicles alone account for 60% of our transport emissions and more than 10% of Australia’s total emissions.
The Federal Government recently announced its 2035 emissions reduction target — 62–70% below 2005 levels by 2035. This implies the need for 5 million EVs to be on the road by 2035 says the EVC. From 410,000 to 5 million in 10 years is a huge jump.
Looking at the SolarQuotes rebates and subsidies page, there’s currently not much in the way of incentives for electric vehicles except in the ACT, and aside from the national EV Fringe Benefit Tax Exemption (aka Electric Vehicle Discount); which is also under threat.
Also looming is an EV road user charge, the nature of which and timeline for implementation are still some way off.
“Just when we need to accelerate, states and territories have been pulling back EV incentives,” said Electric Vehicle Council CEO Julie Delvecchio. “No country has reached mass EV adoption without sustained government support so withdrawing it now risks stalling the momentum we desperately need.”
The Electric Vehicle Council is calling for:
- Maintaining the Electric Vehicle Discount until 2035.
- A date for a ban on new petrol and diesel car registrations.
- Incentives such as GST exemptions and energy bill credits.
The EVC’s State of EVs 2025 can be accessed here.
Footnotes
- According to the Australian Automobile Association’s Electric Vehicle Index, BEVs accounted for 7.87% and PHEVs 4.28% of new light vehicle sales in the first half of 2025. ↩
About Michael Bloch
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What needs doing won’t happen. Sales of new petrol and diesel (and perhaps even secondhand combustion clunkers) need to be banned, inside 5 years. We have no domestic car industry to protect.
None of that will happen because vehicles are so fundamental to far too many people’s identities.
Not once in all human history has a ‘revolution’ been a planned, staged, managed rollout of anything.
Another incentive would be cheaper power costs at commercial fast chargers which all seem to be three or four times the cost of the power to the provider.
And another the provision of slow chargers at locations where cars are parked for long periods like railway station and airport car parks.
As ever, prices will make the difference and we are very nearly there. I think that it is like how I was among the thousands ready to pounce on a home battery when a price threshold was crossed with the rebate scheme (<$500 per kWh installed or LCoS of 15c/kWh) – and not in the least surprised by the huge take-up of that scheme.
I am among presumably thousands who are waiting for a good little city runabout second car for under $30k new or under $20k used. I don't like the BYD Dolphin or a used Nissan Leaf, so I'm not there yet. But very, very close.
It is frustrating how the small, cheap end of the market is so slow, because that it is where a huge chunk of the potential EV buyers live.
Because of batteries' massive price drop and that an electric motor is relatively far simpler than the engineering marvel of modern, efficient ICE, it is only a matter of time.
Michael,
You’re not kidding about the benefits of a level 2 home EV charger. After several overcast days, I put 39kWh into the MG4 yesterday, in just part of the day – off-grid, so night-time charging is limited by house battery size and competing loads. A granny charger could take 5 days to do the same, wasting sunshine all the way.
The cost of the charger is about 500 L of petrol, or 5,000 km of fossil-propelled driving – an ongoing dead expense for active polluters, a one-time charger investment for climate saviours.
And, yes, ample arrays enable the whole household’s pollution-free energy consumption. Yesterday hit a new optimum here; 57 kWh for the day. There seems to be more overcast days as the climate heats up, so a big grabby array and batteries may become increasingly necessary, to make up for low insolation some days.
An interest-free loan for BEVs (Not HEVs) would endow low cost & emissions-free commuting NOW, with the savings easing repayment. It’s win-win & easy.