Most Australians want the State and Federal Governments to implement policies that would encourage more electric vehicles on Australian roads, according to new research from The Australia Institute Climate & Energy Program.

Key findings:

• An overwhelming majority of Australians (79%) support the Government building a network of charging stations across the country for electric vehicles.
• The majority of Australians support for governments to procure electric vehicle fleets (76%) and providing loans for electric vehicle uptake (55%).
• Almost three out of four Australians (74%) support rebates to promote installation of charging stations for electric vehicles and for new apartment blocks to be required to host charging stations (73%).
• Two out of three Australians (66%) want the Luxury Car Tax removed from imported electric vehicles

“Our research makes it clear that Australians are keen for the Government to encourage electric vehicle uptake through a range of policy measures,” said Richie Merzian, Climate & Energy Program Director at The Australia Institute.

“Australia has a high-polluting transport sector, transport emissions have increased 59% since 1990 and continue to climb. There are numerous, popular policies available to the Government to help drive this around, including changing their fleet to electric vehicles.

“Removing barriers to electric vehicle ownership, such as the Luxury Car Tax and providing concessional loans can drive serious growth in electric vehicle uptake.

“If we look at Norway as an example, where electric and hybrid cars now make up half of all new car registrations – compared to Australia where EVs don’t come close to even 1% of new sales.

“State and Territory Governments have taken steps in the right direction but there has been a real absence of federal policy leadership.

“For the Senate Inquiry into Electric Vehicles to recommend the most popular of these policy initiatives is a step in the right direction.

“It is clear that helping Australia transition to electric vehicles is good for the economy, good for jobs and good for the environment, but our research shows it would also be good at the ballot box come election time.”