\n<\/p>\n
Australia could reduce its reliance on foreign fuel by more than 1bn litres a year if we replaced 1m petrol-fuelled cars with electric vehicles, as experts say boosting EV adoption is part of securing the nation\u2019s long-term economic security.<\/p>\n
Hussein Dia, a professor of transport technology and sustainability at the Swinburne University of Technology, said electric vehicles can play a meaningful role in improving Australia\u2019s energy sovereignty, as well as contributing to the national net zero emissions goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach EV replacing that vehicle effectively eliminates that fuel demand and instead shifts energy consumption to electricity, which is largely produced domestically,\u201d Dia said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat reduces exposure to global oil price shocks and improves the resilience of the transport system. We don\u2019t want to experience the same thing every few years.\u201d<\/p>\n
A typical petrol car travelling 15,000km a year might consume roughly 1,150 litres of fuel, which means \u201ceven moderate EV penetration can make a noticeable difference\u201d, Dia said.<\/p>\n
Replacing 1m internal combustion engine cars with electric vehicles will not happen quickly. There are only about 420,000 EVs on the road today in a national fleet of around 20m cars, so roughly 2%.<\/p>\n
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/span><\/p>\n Diesel and petrol cars burn through about 25bn litres of fuel a year, so replacing half of all vehicles with electric versions would slash annual consumption by about 12bn litres.<\/p>\n Dia emphasised that these were illustrative examples of the important role greater adoption of EV can play in making the nation more resilient to future energy shocks.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are big asks, but I think if there is a will, then I think it is doable,\u201d Dia said.<\/p>\n The US-Israel war on Iran has triggered a global energy shock which has pushed unleaded petrol prices in Australia\u2019s major east coast cities to $2.30 a litre, or 30-40 cents higher in just two weeks, according to MotorMouth.<\/p>\n With diesel prices pushing towards $2.65 a litre or even higher in regional areas, Alison Reeve, the director of the Grattan Institute\u2019s energy and climate change program, said this year\u2019s energy crisis could trigger a major shift in how Australians and policymakers view electric vehicles.<\/p>\n New figures from the Australian Automobile Association showed petrol and diesel cars accounted for a record low two in three vehicle sales through the final three months of last year, down from 70% in the September quarter.<\/p>\n Petrol prices in the major east coast cities were up 15-20% since the start of the month.<\/p>\n A study covering Scandinavian nations found that a 1% increase in petrol prices was associated with an average 0.85% increase in EV sales, and that the pace of EV adoption was far more sensitive to petrol prices than electricity costs.<\/p>\n Matt Kean, the chair of the Climate Change Authority, said the CCA had advised that the electrification of transport would reduce emissions and Australians\u2019 exposure to global oil prices.<\/p>\n \u201cEvents are making that advice seem more prescient by the day,\u201d Kean said.<\/p>\n \u201cMarch could see a record month for EV sales and it wouldn\u2019t be surprising to see that momentum maintained as the shockwaves from the Middle East won\u2019t be easily forgotten by motorists.\u201d<\/p>\n In this context, talk of the government potentially scaling back electric vehicle incentives in the upcoming budget came at the worst time, Reeve said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to respond to the problem in a way that we don\u2019t have the same problem in the future,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can be pretty sure there will be some geopolitical shock in the next few years, and they always affect oil and petrol prices.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Australia could reduce its reliance on foreign fuel by more than 1bn litres a year if we replaced 1m petrol-fuelled cars with electric vehicles, as experts say boosting EV adoption is part of securing the nation\u2019s long-term economic security. Hussein Dia, a professor of transport technology and sustainability at the Swinburne University of Technology, said<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[4564,2029,1689,304,719,4277,258,660,23830,16897,12719,14337,720,1569],"class_list":{"0":"post-46863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-1bn","9":"tag-australias","10":"tag-cars","11":"tag-cut","12":"tag-electric","13":"tag-evs","14":"tag-foreign","15":"tag-fuel","16":"tag-litres","17":"tag-petrol","18":"tag-reliance","19":"tag-replacing","20":"tag-vehicles","21":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}