When Robyn Everist saw the petrol prices skyrocketing she knew it was time to put a long-laid plan to purchase an electrical vehicle into action.
A few months later, she and her husband couldn't be happier.
"We've been waiting for the prices to get a bit more reasonable," Ms Everist said, with her selection of a second-hand Nissan Leaf setting her back about $30,000 when all the costs are tallied up.
"We had an initial look and said 'yes we'll do that', but didn't seriously go car hunting until the petrol price went up.
"We drive to town every day for work and there was no way I was going to pay petrol money if I could just as easily get an electric car that's more efficient."
Ms Everist and her husband live at Clifton Beach, about 30 minutes from Hobart's CBD in Tasmania, but work in the city — making for a round trip of around 70 kilometres every day.
She said while there's no doubt her home electricity bill has increased, it is a small price to pay for the reduced carbon footprint she's creating and the ability to drive straight past the servo.
"If I have to drive to work, this is the way to do it."
Will your next car be electric?
There are currently a few dozen different makes and models of electric cars being sold in Australia, according to the head of the Australian Electric Vehicle Association Chris Jones.
These vary from short-range (able to travel between 160-200km before a full charge is required) to long-range vehicles (up to 600km).
And demand for those cars, he said, was through the roof.
"They just can't make enough of them," Mr Jones said.
"It's definitely an exponential growth curve, but starting from a small base.
"Twelve years ago, you could probably count the number of electric vehicles in Australia in the hundreds. Now, we're probably close to 50 or 60,000 plug-in vehicles."
However, with supply issues a big challenge, that still only makes up under 4 per cent of new light vehicle sales so far in 2022, according to the most recent report from the Electric Vehicle Council.
Mr Jones said he expected the number of sales to increase as battery technology improves and the industry globally moves away from fossil-fuelled vehicles.
"The more variety in makes and model, and therefore price ranges, the easier it will be for people across the whole of society to say 'yep, my next car will be an EV'," he said.
"In the early days, there were two sort of classes of electrical vehicle that came out. There was the high-end, long-range one, which was quite expensive, and there was the short-range, more affordable one."
He said while the cars themselves aren't necessarily getting cheaper — with new vehicles starting around $40,000-$50,000 — they were certainly getting better.
"Even the short-range EVs are now going much further than the short-range vehicles of 10 years ago."
Where does the focus need to be?
Companies such as Tesla and BYD are currently leading the charge for the manufacture of electric cars, with Nissan, Volkswagen and Hyundai also working increasingly in this space.
It is leading to a diversity of vehicles coming through – even including electric utes and vans, with the freight industry also exploring where they fit into this transition.
However, Mr Jones said there was still plenty of room for improvement in the lower price end of the market, particularly as it is those with less disposable income that benefit most from moving away from a fossil-fuel-reliant car.
"If we want to see more EVs on the road, we're going to have to get the cheaper ones bulked up," he said.
What was also vital, he said, was giving major car manufacturers a reason to move away from diesel and petrol cars and essentially forcing their hand in the EV space.
The way to do that, according to the Australian Electric Vehicle Association, is through vehicle emission standards.
"So basically, [the government] says you can't sell a vehicle in Australia unless it achieves better than say 95 grams of CO2 per kilometre."
In comparison, a standard 4WD car currently on Australian roads averages closer to 130 grams per kilometre.
"If we set that emission standard, it basically means manufacturers will be compelled to produce lower-end market vehicles that satisfy that requirement," he said.
"The good thing is, is that when we've got a vehicle emission standard, not only will it compel automakers to come up with a greater diversity of EV options, but a lot of countries are outright banning petrol and diesel vehicle sales by a certain date some time in the near future.
"So before too long, it'll be that way [in Australia] anyway, but they're not going to do it unless there's some kind of pressure from governments."
What also needs to come into the conversation, he said, was looking beyond cars and talking about "electrified mobility" as a whole — bringing in electrified scooters, motorbikes and public transport into the equation.
Is buying a new car my only option?
Put simply, no.
Currently, there's not a significant supply of second-hand electric vehicles in Australia as the industry is relatively new. However, they are out there — with the quickly growing social enterprise The Good Car Company in Tasmania a key example.
Launched in 2019, the company offers a range of second-hand vehicles for purchase from around the $20,000 mark, as well as new cars through fleet packages.
Soon, they'll also have a subscription service up and running for customers to rent cars for months at a time.
Co-founder and director Anthony Broese van Groenou said the ethos of the company was making electric vehicles affordable and accessible, with interest "skyrocketing" over the last few years.
However, there was no doubt that the up-front cost was still prohibitive for many, with lingering hesitancy over the technology also holding the industry's growth back, beyond supply challenges.
He said subscription services could help shift those perceptions, offering a "try before you buy" option.
"Some just want to dip their toes in the water, and then you see people get obsessed with it."
What happens when my battery dies?
Like any vehicle, EVs can't last forever.
However, with improvements in technology the industry is increasingly coming up with batteries — which make up the biggest chunk of the cost — with a life span of 15-20 years.
When that winds up, Mr Broese van Groenou said, its usefulness doesn't disappear.
"After that, you can repurpose the batteries," he said.
"When they're no longer good for acceleration and transport they still have a good 12-15 years of life as stationary storage.
"There might be reduced capacity … but you could even whack it in your garage and power your house."
Once the battery reaches the end of its life in that purpose it can be recycled, with the metals and minerals able to be recovered and put back into battery manufacturing.
In terms of needing repairs or maintenance, Mr Broese van Groenou said there also shouldn't be much concern.
"There's very little that actually goes wrong in electric cars. They've only got 20 or so moving parts, as opposed to couple of thousands in an internal combustion vehicle."
Electrification is not just limited to cars
Essentially, it is only a matter of time until cars in Australia are all electrified, Mr Jones said.
"This train has been rolling down the hill since about 2015. In my view, it's a foregone conclusion.
"Everyone will be going electric. It's just a matter of how quickly."
