AUSTRALIA’S leading transport infrastructure advocates are proposing a pronounced change in the way Australians use their cars in a move to promote EV uptake.

The ‘Keep Australian Moving’ campaign – which includes the Australian Automobile Association (AAA), Australian Automotive Dealer Association, the Motor Trades Association of Australia, the AAA member bodies, Australasian Fleet Management Association, Infrastructure Partnerships Australia and other organisations** said it wants to “recharge the EV network and the funding mechanism” as a single plan.

Michael Bradley

It wants federal investment in the EV re-charging network that it said was needed “to overcome the range anxiety (that is) stopping motorists switching to EVs, paid for by a fair,  distance-based road-user charge”. 

AAA managing director Michael Bradley said: “Australia needs both the re-charging network and the funding mechanism, and the two cannot be separated. 

“Sixty per cent of Australians who want an EV are not buying one because they lack confidence in the re-charging network. 

“That is the problem, and right now there is no alternative funding plan on the table to fix it: not from the commonwealth, not from the states, not from the market. “Anyone who says they support a national re-charging network capable of supporting EV uptake, but oppose a road-user charge needs to ask themselves: ‘where else will the money come from?’”

Research by Australia’s peak motoring body has long shown range anxiety is the structural factor stopping most Australians from switching to an EV, with potential buyers lacking confidence in both the regional re-charging network, and the accessibility and reliability of metropolitan re-charging.

The research finds range anxiety is not just about a lack of confidence in regional re-charging, but also about the inadequacy and unreliability of suburban public re-charging, and the challenges faced by people who live in apartments, or who don’t have a garage with a battery or a roof with a solar panel. 

“If designed and used properly, a road-user charge can drive EV adoption by sustainably funding the re-charging network that Australia’s next wave of EV drivers wants and needs,” Mr Bradley said. 

“A fair, distance-based RUC is not a new tax on EV drivers, but a modernisation of the fuel excise that has paid for our roads for decades and which has always been underpinned by the concept that a driver’s financial contribution is based upon their use.” 

The Keep Australia Moving coalition of transport and infrastructure groups is now calling on the federal government to commit to a national EV RUC that is guided by principles designed to ensure the charge is fair, distance-based, and at a level that does not disincentivise EV adoption.”

Keep Australia Moving Partners

** Keep Australia Moving is run by the Australian Automobile Association (AAA), Infrastructure Partnerships Australia (IPA), Australasian Fleet Management Association (AfMA), Australian Automotive Dealer Association (AADA) and Motor Trades Association of Australia (MTAA) and endorsed by Australia’s seven-state motoring clubs.