Study: Most Aussies will be driving a petrol car in 2035

More than a quarter of Australian drivers expect to be driving a petrol-powered vehicle in 2035, with fresh data from carsales revealing EV consideration to be dropping significantly, despite the record sales numbers observed over recent months.

Although consideration for electric and hybrid vehicles skyrocketed earlier this year when war in the Middle East broke out and led to inflated fuel prices, interest in petrol cars has once again overtaken EVs.

Almost 30 per cent of Australian drivers expect to be driving a petrol-powered machine in 2035, up from just 22 per cent a month prior.

Meanwhile, EV intention dropped by almost 10 per cent in the last month.

According to carsales’ latest EV survey, 26 per cent of Aussies said they expected to be driving an electric vehicle in 2035, which remains higher than results collected in May 2025, when less than 20 per cent of respondents expected to be driving an EV in a decade’s time.

Chief among the barriers preventing Aussies from buying an EV remains a lack of public charging infrastructure (41%), while range anxiety is on the rise yet again – almost 40 per cent of respondents concerned with how much distance they’ll be able to cover in an EV before needing to recharge.

Diesel vehicle intention meantime remained steady at 14 per cent, while renewed interest in – or at least intention to be driving – a hybrid vehicle has increased, with a quarter of Australians now expecting to drive one in the next 10 years.

The findings are clear: come 2035, most Australians believe they’ll still be behind the wheel of a petrol-powered vehicle – likely one with a hybrid badge, rather than a pure combustion engine.

While last month's record EV sales – with EVs accounting for around 20 per cent of new car sales in June – paint a picture of an electric revolution, the bigger story is the shift to hybrids.

Hybrid sales were up 35 per cent in June, while plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) spiked a whopping 158 per cent. The fact that more PHEVs are arriving Down Under, at increasingly low prices, is also part of the shift.

That trend is only being reinforced by external factors.

With fuel prices leveling out and interest rates stabilising, cost-of-living pressures aren’t as dire as they were in March, and buyers who might otherwise have stretched for an EV are instead pouring back into the showroom for more familiar, fuel-sipping alternatives.

Related: EV consideration up for the first time in three years

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