The burbs plug in.
I was taken by this piece at the ABC about the surge in sales of electric cars in the outer suburbs. It was one of those ‘D’oh!’ moments when I read it. Of course, it makes sense. Petrol is really fucking expensive right now, and people living in the outer suburbs are the ones getting smacked hardest because they have to drive so far to work, often grinding for hours through gridlock.
Of course they’d save thousands in fuel and maintenance costs by going electric. Especially since so many of them already installed solar panels to cut back on expensive electricity bills.
But the culture war meme of the latte-sipping inner city type driving a spendy electric vehicle is so strong it all sort of feels like a revelation
The myth that the typical electric car driver lives in a leafy inner-city suburb is busted, with the outer suburbs zooming past the cities in sales.
The latest data from the Electric Vehicle Council (EVC), obtained by the ABC, shows the biggest increase in orders for popular electric vehicle (EV) brands last year came from outer-suburban areas.
The data covers sales from the two biggest electric car companies, Elon Musk's Tesla and Chinese-owned BYD, which account for three-quarters of all EV sales, according to the council.
Overall, about 43 per cent of electric cars sold by the car companies last year went to people in outer-metropolitan suburbs, compared to 39 per cent sold in inner-metropolitan areas, as petrol price hikes drove more people to switch to electric.
It’s a long piece, but worth reading if relevant to your interests. This quote by CEO of the Electric Vehicle Council, Beyhad Jafari, really stuck out:
"We had more people buying electric vehicles from Blacktown than in Bondi," he said. "EVs are not novel. They are a suburban, mainstream Australian reality and that trend is only set to continue. When we ask people today why they bought an electric vehicle … the number one reason they give back is being able to avoid high fuel bills," he said.
It makes me wonder whether Dutton will even be able to run Morrison’s old scare campaign again, demonising electric vehicle policy as a threat to real, pie-eating petrol-drinking Aussie mums and dads in the outer suburbs.
He tried something like it in that bye-election and got nowhere. Maybe this is why.
If I were advising the government I'd tell them to start pitching their fuel standards legislation as an enabler of a bigger EV market in this country and watch Dutton's support fall apart. Manufacturers are dumping their ICE models here in order to sell EVs into markets with stricter fuel standards than we have, which is why our EV market is so limited (all the available stock is going to Europe and the US).
First place I saw a lot of EVs was Europe, and most were taxis. If you can cut running costs by 80% why wouldn't you? I don't understand why it hasn't happened here. Are hybrid camrys really so efficient? Wouldn't have thought so. Ubers are often BYDs now, so it's happening.
Read a good article in the IEEE Spectrum today about the ev market in China. They're exploring all market niches, designs and battery chemistries. Lots going cheaper with smaller range and lighter weight. US manufacturers are panicking that they've backed the wrong horse with all their wood behind an electric Humvee.