Electric vehicles (EV) are currently saving motorists $100 compared to buying a regular vehicle, says a consumer body.
Brian Spak, director at Energy Consumers Australia, said EVs were likely to represent the “single greatest opportunity” for households and small businesses to participate in, and benefit from, the renewable energy transition.
But he conceded current gains were “relatively modest.”
The director cited a report by his organisation, which indicated that EV owners only saved around $100 (US$65) a year compared to conventional vehicles, when factoring in purchase price.
However, Mr. Spak noted that the cost-saving benefit would rise when EV prices dropped.
“As electric vehicle prices decline, the CSIRO [Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation] found that the savings for every driver ballooned to more than $1,400 per year by 2030,” he told a parliamentary committee on July 25.
At the same time, Mr. Spak said CSIRO’s analysis showed that other consumers would also gain from the addition of more EVs.
“They [CSIRO] identified an annual savings for other consumers of about $180 per year today, and up to $300 per year into the future. That’s for the household that doesn’t own the car,” he said.
“This is because cars usually charge when the grid is not stressed, and the increased utilisation of the electricity network puts downward pressure on network prices.
“This result is consistent with evidence from California, where millions of EVs have demonstrably put downward pressure on prices, providing net benefits of more than $2 billion for other grid users.”
Nevertheless, the director said that for the benefits to be realised, Australian consumers would need accessible and reliable EV charging infrastructure.
Mr. Spak pointed out that the biggest issue with public EV chargers was maintenance.
“This is a persistent issue in the United States where people rock up, and then all of a sudden, this thing doesn’t work,” he said.
Limited Access to Charging Infrastructure
Meanwhile, Timothy Jarratt, an executive at the electricity distribution company Ausgrid, said limited access to charging infrastructure was a major barrier to EV uptake in Australia.The executive gave the example of the state of New South Wales (NSW), where not every consumer can find a place to charge their vehicles.
“Thirty percent of people in NSW will struggle to access charging at home, either because they rent or they live in an apartment or in a home without a driveway,” he said.
Echoing the sentiment, Colin Crisafulli, a general manager at the electricity distribution network service provider Endeavour Energy, said the lack of available charging was detrimental to EV adoption.
“As detailed in the national EV strategy at the end of 2023, we had 35 EVs for every public charging station. This compares to a 17-to-one ratio in the UK,” he said.
To help address the EV charger shortage in NSW, Mr. Crisafulli said his company had assisted the state government in rolling out 22,500 charges on NSW’s network of existing poles and electricity infrastructure.
The general manager believed the above solution was the most cost-effective approach to improve the charging experience.
