Electric vehicles are increasingly common on Australian roads. But are we about to see the promised boom in new EV models? What about a thriving secondhand market? And are there enough charging stations to make “range anxiety” a thing of the past?
Last week, the Climate Change Authority (CCA) suggested half of all the light vehicles sold in Australia over the next decade would have to be EVs to meet emissions reduction targets. By 2035, it is expected that electric cars will make up 85% of sales.
Here’s everything you need to know about the journey ahead.
Where are we starting from?
Australians buy roughly a million new cars each year. Over the coming decade, at least half of all sales will need to be electric.
Chris Jones, the president of the Australian Electric Vehicle Association, says that’s “certainly achievable”. Australia started late, but prices are already competitive and charging infrastructure is catching up, Jones says.
The CCA’s advice refers to battery electric vehicles and doesn’t include plug-in hybrids. In the most recent quarter – April to June 2025 – battery EVs made up 9% of new sales. That contrasts with 1% in the same period in 2022.
What’s available now in Australia?
Tesla Model Y and Model 3 and the BYD Seal and Atto were the most popular models in 2024, according to the EV Council, out of more than 120 options available in Australia.
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As more electric-only brands arrive in Australia, the top sellers are likely to change, says Brendan Doyle, whose business, Help me buy an EV, assists people in exploring electric options for their next vehicle.
“A real success over the past five months – that’s come out of nowhere – is Geely,” Doyle says, the parent company behind Volvo, Polestar and other brands. Geely’s new car, the EX5 – an SUV that’s cheaper than a Toyota RAV4 – has been selling about 600 vehicles a month.
Zeekr, also owned by Geely, is another “crazy phenomenon”, he says, with popularity largely driven by YouTube reviews. “Their new model, the 7X, has taken over 2,000 orders now and no one’s even test-driven the car.”
Australians have plenty of choice in medium SUVs, Doyle says. For smaller, compact cars below $40,000, there’s only a handful, like the BYD Dolphin or MG4. Fully electric utes remain a gap in the market.
Options for electric vans – suitable for tradies and delivery drivers – have improved in the past few years. There are now several options available, some priced under $60,000, Doyle says.
‘Once we crack 15-20%, it’s going to snowball’
The climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, says a vast array of models will soon hit car yards in Australia.
“In the next 12 months, very exciting[ly], you’ll be able to get an EV which is cheap, which is expensive, which is a big or a small [car], or whatever you like,” he said last week.
Doyle too thinks Australians will be shocked by the pace of change that’s about to come.
“We’re about to have an incredible amount of brands onshore by this time next year – we’ve already got a huge amount,” Doyle says. “When you start seeing the pole chargers turn up on your street, and more fast-charge locations, and your neighbours have got an EV … once we crack 15 to 20% [of sales], it’s going to snowball.”
The greater range of models will probably see prices fall further in coming years, as retailers take certainty from the government’s targets for emissions reduction, according to industry researcher Scott Dwyer, an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney’s Institute for Sustainable Futures.
Between now and 2030, he says, consumers will be faced with a simpler choice: “I could buy the petrol diesel version or I could get an electric model, the same or similar, for about the same price.”
What about secondhand sales?
EV owners sold 16,000 secondhand vehicles in Australia in the first half of 2025, nearly quadruple the same period in 2023. The top resale vehicles were Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y, the MG4 and the BMW IX models, according to data platform AutoGrab and the Australian automotive dealer association.
Prices for secondhand EVs have continued to drop as newer, cheaper models arrive, with Autograb reporting year-old cars are now selling at a 20% discount compared with new ones.
However, the market has been volatile month-to-month and EVs still account for only 1% of all used car sales, which totalled 1.1m in the first half of 2025. Dwyer expects the electric secondhand market to blossom but with a lag, as more businesses and governments buy EVs to use in fleets and then sell them within five years.
Leasing options
Workers with some large employers can access discounts and tax breaks to lease an EV, making it a more affordable option.
Novated leases for EVs are eligible for an exemption on fringe benefits tax, meaning eligible employees can pay in pretax dollars for the car and its running costs. That drives savings – a Guardian Australia analysis found the exemption would save an owner of Tesla Model Y about $10,000 over four years, depending on their salary.
Almost half of all EV purchases in Australia are made under lease arrangements, according to the industry lobby group The National Automotive Leasing and Salary Packaging Association.
But the scheme is only accessible if employers can afford it and choose to offer it. Alongside other EV tax breaks, it also costs the budget millions in forgone tax revenue.
Where can I charge an EV?
“People still think that the charging is not there, and that’s just not right,” says Doyle.
“When our clients get in the car and do their first road trip – if they’re going to Coffs Harbour, or from Melbourne to the snow, or from Adelaide up to the Flinders Ranges, or from Perth down to Busselton or Albany – the charging is there now.”
More than 1,000 places in Australia already provide fast or ultra-fast public charging, with that number to increase with an additional $40m pledged by the federal government on Thursday.
Australia in 2024 had 22 public charging stations for every 1,000 electric cars, up from 15 the previous year but behind the global average of 90, according to the International Energy Agency.
Australia’s cities are seeing a rising density of public charging points, now popping up at restaurants, shopping centres and petrol stations – although the majority of people mostly charge at home.
State governments are helping, with NSW funding station installations in strata apartment blocks. Sydney’s inner west already has nearly four charging stations per square kilometre.
Is hitting the 50% EV sales goal enough?
In short, no.
By 2030, transport is likely to overtake electricity to become Australia’s largest emitting sector, according to the Climate Change Authority. It’s the only sector where emissions are increasing, according to government data.
Electric cars are only part of the solution. Priority actions in the government’s transport roadmap include investment in infrastructure to support walking, cycling and public transport as well as freight and fast rail, along with electrifying trucks, buses and trains.
Jones would like to see governments put more effort into encouraging and electrifying other forms of transport – electric motorbikes, bikes and scooters, for example, along with buses, trains and mass transit systems.
“Swapping every passenger vehicle to an EV will take a long time, and we don’t have that time on our hands,” Jones says. “We’ve got to massively increase non-car transport options.”
Portia Odell, the cities lead at the Climateworks Centre, says a diversified approach can help. That includes reducing unnecessary travel, supporting the rollout of public and active transport, and shifting more freight by rail.
“Just like in the energy sector, where the nation is backing a whole suite of clean energy solutions, Australia can do the same with transport,” she says.
