How friendly is your state for EVs?

New South Wales has been recognised as the most EV-friendly state in Australia by the Electric Vehicle Council (EVC).

NSW was awarded nine out of 10 in the latest policy scorecard ratings by the EVC, following the state’s release of a new electric vehicle strategy in June that included a $3000 subsidy and stamp duty exemption on certain EV purchases.

The Premier State edged narrowly ahead of the ACT on eight, and the Northern Territory and Tasmania (both seven).

Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia each scored six out of 10 – Victoria marked down for introducing an EV road user tax, despite offering a $3000 rebate – while the federal government scored a dismal three “after failing to make meaningful inroads in line with other comparable jurisdictions around the world”, according to the EVC.

The ratings come as the EVC cites figures that show 7248 electric vehicles were sold in the first half of 2021, making this easily a record year as the number is already well above the previous high-water mark of 5292 EVs reported as sold for the 2019 calendar year.

These figures are based on official VFACTS data and an “estimate” by the EVC for Tesla, which does not disclose sales figures.

carsales reported earlier this month that Tesla had sold 7598 EVs – all examples of the Tesla Model 3 – for the first seven months of this year (ending July 31), compared to 2739 electric cars from all other brands combined.

Releasing its annual ‘State of Electric Vehicles’ report today, EVC chief executive Behyad Jafari commended the states on their introduction of new electric car policies, while calling on the federal government to take more ownership.

“New South Wales has introduced Australia’s best electric vehicle policy to date. That $500m of investment and package of incentives to accelerate the uptake of zero-emissions vehicles is finally something comparable with jurisdictions overseas,” he said.

“The movement across most states and territories is now generally positive and that’s providing greater confidence to private sector investors, which will pave the way for more places to charge and better services to support e-mobility.

“The chief headwind at the moment is, unfortunately, a continued lack of leadership on electric vehicles at the federal level.

“After promising a national strategy two years ago, the federal government has failed to deliver.”

The EV lobby group’s latest report follows the release of an Infrastructure Victoria strategy last week that called for sales of all new petrol and diesel vehicles to end by 2035 “at the latest” as a means of tackling a warming climate and worsening traffic congestion.

Jafari said the introduction of more affordable EVs in Australia was a sure-fire way to increasing their consumer appeal.

“We need to see more electric vehicle models in Australia, particularly at lower price points. That’s happening slowly, but if we want to accelerate the process and attract the globally limited electric vehicle supply, we need policies enacted at the national level, like fuel efficiency standards,” he said.

“Australia has more to gain than most countries on electric vehicles. If [we] transition well we’ll be able to meet our net zero goals, break our dependency of foreign oil and improve our air quality.”