Where is the EV capital in Australia?

– By Marc Sibbald – 

Everyone knows that there aren’t many EVs sold in Australia each year. There’s a lot of talk about them being the vehicles of the future and recently the Federal Government has become more interested with support for the Electric Vehicle Council.

Though which capital city is leading the way with electric vehicles?

Adelaide certainly seems supportive and the South Australian government has been making headlines with support for EVs and autonomous vehicles.

The Adelaide Lord Mayor Martin Haese is a big supporter and put the topic on the agenda at a meeting of Capital City Lord Mayors last year. He explained to FAN in an exclusive interview that Adelaide is running a strong smart city agenda and are providing financial incentives for businesses to install EV charge points.

In other states there appears to be some token support from state and local government fleets though no one has purchased significant numbers.

Based on data from the ABS, Melbourne is the EV capital of Australia. Victoria makes sense because of the number of manufacturers located in Melbourne to run press fleets, and there’s a large population of cars so its obvious that some will be electric powered.

But why are there so many in Canberra? A cynic would say that manufacturers are trying to inspire politicians and public servants to implement policies favouring electric vehicles.

Whatever the reason, these statistics will be worth following over the next five years.

The table below shows the number of Electric Vehicles registered in each capital city (Source: ABS)