Car travel in Australia contributes 8% of national greenhouse emissions, with around 75% of those attributed to urban travel. A transition to electric cars provides an opportunity to eliminate these greenhouse emissions.
What are vehicle chargers?
Chargers more efficiently connect electric vehicles to electrical sources. First generation chargers enabled an electric vehicle to draw electricity from the grid for storage as chemical energy in the vehicle’s battery. New chargers enable bidirectional charging so that electric vehicles can provide electricity back to the grid when demand is high.
Ensuring many public chargers are available in places where people park during the day, such as supermarkets and carparks, will increase confidence that the growing national EV fleet can charge up on solar energy during the day. This will help balance supply and demand in the grid enabling more renewables at lower cost.
Reasons to love electric vehicles and chargers
- A shift to 100% electric vehicles would eliminate at least 6% of Australia’s greenhouse emissions
- Electric vehicles are more convenient
- Eliminate bowser bills
- Reduce Australia's reliance on imported fuel
- Create safer, more liveable environments
- Reduce freight and supply chain costs
- Create ongoing jobs in Australia - in manufacturing, installation and maintenance
We can cut transport emissions by 15% over the next five years by deploying electric vehicles (EVs) to replace those running on fossil fuels, and ensuring there is adequate charging infrastructure to support them.This can be a win-win as midday charging can utilise and store surplus solar PV.
The opportunity for electric vehicles in Australia
Australia requires a nationwide plan to deploy EVs across all vehicle types, with success in countries such as Norway offering a playbook to emulate. To achieve rapid emissions reduction in the transport sector through electrification of vehicles in the next five years, we need to:
- Encourage purchase of 1.4 million electric passenger fleet vehicles to kick start electrification of Australia’s 20 million passenger vehicles
- Increase production of locally manufactured electric buses and rigid trucks to replace 30% of Australia’s national bus fleet (34,500 vehicles) and 70,000 rigid trucks
- Electrify 850,500 light commercial vehicles (utes and vans), as well as 43,350 articulated trucks
- Deploy 36,000 electric farm vehicles: small to medium tractors ranging up to 60 kW
- Install 1.4 million chargers: 1.12 million residential and 236,000 public
Learn more about the Australian companies leading in electric vehicle technology.
Australian-made electric trucks
SEA Electric launched its first proprietary electric power-system technology for urban delivery and distribution fleets in 2017, and has since released multiple medium and heavy-duty commercial EV platforms, with applications including delivery trucks, garbage trucks, tipper trucks, school and shuttle buses, plus cargo and passenger vans.
Founded in Dandenong, Victoria in 2012, SEA Electric is now headquartered in Los Angeles serving markets in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the European Union, with numerous collaborations ongoing with leading OEMs and business fleets.
SEA Electric’s Australian facility has commenced 100% Australian commercial production of electric trucks supported by a national SEA Electric dealer network.
Discover more companies leading innovation in electric vehicle technology.
Brisbane start-up now world leading fast-charge company
Tritium was founded by three engineering graduates in a shed in South Brisbane in 2001. The company designs and manufactures advanced direct current (DC) fast chargers for electric vehicles, and its chargers provide around 15,000 high-powered charging sessions per day.
Over the years, the company has expanded and now employs more than 550 people around the world. In 2022, Tritium holds approximately 10% of the European charging market, 20% of the US, and more than 75% of Australia and New Zealand. Tritium has recently moved some of its operations to the United States, where it’s listed on the Nasdaq exchange.
Discover more companies leading innovation in electric vehicle technology.
The five-year Deploy plan
Electric vehicles are one of six technologies - alongside batteries, wind pumps, wind turbines, solar panels and electrolysers - Australian households, industry and transport can rollout to do the heavy lifting in reducing our emissions by 81% by 2030.
Our Deploy plan shows, in the next five years, we need to install clean technology at a rate of about two units or appliances per household. The good news is, we already know how to make these key technologies – we just need to make more of them and put them to work.
Mass deployment of emission reducing technologies like electric vehicles can create jobs, reduce energy costs, revitalise manufacturing in our regions and urban centres, and help stimulate a green export industry triple the size of our current fossil fuel exports.