I attended an Electric Vehicle Council networking event hosted by EnergyAustralia last week, where a packed house welcomed new interim CEO Samantha Johnson, formerly CEO of Polestar, and listened to presentations from four speakers; Renae Gasmier of EnergyAustralia, Rohan Martin CEO of NALSPA, Mike Costello of Cox Automotive, and Jack Kotlyar of EnergyAustralia.
Samantha Johnson applauded outgoing CEO Behyad Jafari for how much had been achieved since the inception of the EVC, particularly the advocacy for the New Vehicle Fuel Efficiency Standards. Johnson vowed to continue working to push forward with advocacy and building standards for the EV industry, looking toward a growth phase for the EVC as the EV market continued growth in Australia. The EVC is currently surveying members to ensure challenges are being addressed, and members are being supported, and that the EVC maintains its focus on what matters to the industry.
Now heading EnergyAustralia’s Customer Assets team, Renae Gasmier has 20 years experience working with how business and urban places impact and sustainability. Renae spoke of the opportunity for retail energy customers in the management of their energy in smart home and smart car functions.
She pointed to the 26% of new bus sales being electric globally, and the solar ‘big 7’ now producing as much energy as ‘big oil’ produces.
With a dig at the coalition’s new nuclear policies, Gasmier said that Australians were “getting on with the transition to renewables, regardless of politics, the centre of gravity is shifting to consumers.”
Renae pointed at the 120% growth in new EV sales from 2022 to 2023, and forecasts of one million EVs on Australian roads by 2027. She mentioned the energy storage potential of EVs, with the average battery size of 67kWh being enough to power a whole home for three days.
EnergyAustralia will be expanding their solar home bundle to include EV charging, said Gasmier, offering solar solutions with no upfront costs and fixed tariffs. “Australia needs consumers who can afford solar systems and eclectic vehicles to stay on the grid.” she said.
Rohan Martin spoke next, the CEO of NALSPA, the peak body for salary packaging and novated leasing in Australia. He noted that novated leasing was a driver of new car sales, and a key enabler of EV growth.
With 12 new EV brands set to enter the Australian market in 2025, and the effect of the NVES, we’ll be seeing drastic change in the vehicle industry.
Martin noted that middle and outer suburbia was where there was most demand for EVs through novated leasing, probably due to the significant distances driven, and that the trend was largely driven by men. May 2024 saw 12.8% of passenger vehicle sales being electric, and the FBT exemption has been a big driver of that, according to Martin.
We’re past the early adoption stage, believes Martin and into a second wave now which requires greater awareness building among consumers and a change in the FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) about EVs which still has a hold with many consumers.
EV penetration was still limited with corporate fleets, due largely to total cost of ownership (TCO) concerns, fluctuating residual values and challenges of infrastructure. Ute’s are hugely popular in fleets, and as novated lease vehicles, and that needs to be changed or catered to by the EV industry.
Rohan highlighted that driver education and behaviour change management was necessary within organisations to transition drivers to electric. “Transition planning is fundamental”, said Martin, saying EV purchase was “not a decision for Procurement only, but Finance, Sustainability teams, and infrastructure decision makers need to be involved too.”
Fleets need to start their journey somewhere, by learning about EV, purchasing hybrid vehicles to trial, install telematics for data collection, or begin the conversation about charging. A first step could be to connect with the sustainability targets of the organisation and look at measuring fleet emissions.
Rohan finished by noting that the FBT exemption for Plug in Hybrids (PHEVs) is due to end in April 2025, and that PHEVs are very important for transitioning fleets.
Mike Costello, Corporate affairs Manager for Cox Automotive followed with a blisteringly fast presentation looking at the challenges within EV for fleets and residual values, including
- The steep tech curve, pointing to the new BYD Blade battery technology, which are denser and cheaper
- Price cuts, in battery and vehicles which create uncertainty and almost certainly to continue
- Concerns about reliability and replacement with battery State of Health (SOH) data rarely available for resale vehicles
- New car rebates being detrimental to the second hand market
- Charging black spots being a concern to drivers
- Consumer knowledge and information gap on EV technology and charging
- Residual value fears hampering new vehicle uptake.
Costello pointed to figures showing that the price for used hybrid vehicles is currently higher than EV, using the Hyundai Kona as an example, with ICE holding 91% value compared to EV 71%.
Jack Kotlyar, head of Green Transport for EnergyAustralia finished the presentations by speaking about the work they are doing with commercial fleet customers to prepare sites for charging.
While often the message is to ‘think charging first’ when transitioning a fleet, Jack said large fleet operators should start by contacting their energy distribution company (DNSP) to look at long term increases to site supply. Widespread EV adoption would require increased grid capacity in many places, and very often the best option for a fleet operator is integrating renewable energy generation and on site battery storage for a holistic energy solution.
Kotlyar illustrated his point by describing several sites they have been working across, where grid upgrades would be difficult to achieve. By integrating generation, storage, charging and load management, current fleet charging needs are being met, with a plan for future expansion.
By creating microgrids that can be islandable, that is, able to operate when the connection to the energy grid is down, these holistic energy systems are able to operate in the case of extreme weather events, providing resources to the community in an emergency.
