page_title: Road transport in Australia
section_title: Electric vehicles
hierarchical_section_title: Road transport in Australia / Vehicles / Electric vehicles
caption_attribution_description: English: Tesla Model 3 China
context_page_description: Road transport is an essential element of the Australian transport network, and enabler of the Australian economy. Australia relies heavily on road transport due to Australia's large area and low population density in considerable parts of the country.
  Another reason for the reliance upon roads is that the Australian rail network has not been sufficiently developed for a lot of the freight and passenger requirements in most areas of Australia. This has meant that goods that would otherwise be transported by rail are moved across Australia via road trains. Almost every household owns at least one car, and uses it most days.
  Victoria is the state with the highest density of arterial roads in Australia.
context_section_description: The adoption of plug-in electric vehicles in Australia is driven by customer demand due to the lack of government policies or monetary incentives to support the adoption and deployment of low or zero emission vehicles.
  The total stock of plug-in electric vehicles is almost 12,000 with 6,718 of these electric cars sold in 2019 alone with the other sales occurring between 2012 and 2018. A further 14,253 electric vehicles were registered in early 2020 which is nearly double the registrations of the previous year. The Mitsubishi Outlander P-HEV was the country's top selling plug-in electric vehicle, with over 2,906 plug-in hybrid SUVs sold through March 2018. However, Tesla accounted for 70% of the 6,718 electric car sales in 2019 with the Tesla Model 3 compromising two-thirds of electric car sales in the year. The electric Tesla Model X and Model 3 are Australia's second and third most safest cars. While the Mercedes-Benz all-electric EQC was named the best car in Australia in 2019.
  Victoria is Australia's most important electric vehicle market with the most electric vehicle purchases in Australia between 2011 and 2017 with a total of 1,324 car sales. Victoria is also Australia's most important electric vehicle market because it had the most electric vehicle chargers in the country. Similarly, Victoria's capital city Melbourne, had the highest concentration of electric vehicle chargers in Australia in 2017. Victoria had 403 electric vehicle chargers in 2019 with another 31 expected to be constructed by the end of 2020. Victoria almost doubled the electric vehicle charger network from 216 chargers in 2018 to 403 chargers in 2019. Victoria also manufactures electric vehicles with a commercial electric vehicle manufacturing facility to be established in Victoria in 2021, producing 2,400 vehicles per year. The Victorian company SEA Electric also manufactures electric trucks and other vehicles for domestic and international markets. Overall, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory/New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania represent the largest markets in the country for electric car sales.
  
  The 2018 Electric Vehicle Council report Recharging the Economy, stated a high adoption of electric vehicles has the potential to boost GDP by $2.9 billion and support 13,400 jobs by 2030, and has other positive economic effects including lower fuel costs and better fuel security, improved public health and growth of EV supply chains. A study in 2020 by ClimateWorks Australia, stated that at least 50% of all new cars sold in 2030 will need to be electric vehicles to remain within 2C of global warming by 2050. The study further found that Australia will require an accelerated rollout of electric vehicles to transition to net zero emissions by 2050 and to ensure 100% renewable energy by 2035.
caption: Tesla Model 3 made available in Australia in August 2019 for $66,000 AUD.[26][27]
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