Replacing 1m petrol cars with EVs could cut Australia’s reliance on foreign fuel

Replacing 1m petrol-fuelled cars with electric vehicles could cut Australia’s reliance on foreign fuel by more than 1bn litres a year, experts say. Hussein Dia, professor of transport technology and sustainability at the Swinburne University of Technology, said EVs can play a meaningful role in improving Australia’s energy sovereignty while contributing to the national net zero emissions goal; each EV replacing a petrol vehicle effectively eliminates that fuel demand and shifts energy consumption to electricity produced largely domestically.

A typical petrol car travelling 15,000km a year might consume roughly 1,150 litres, so even moderate EV penetration can make a noticeable difference, Dia said. But replacing 1m internal combustion engine cars will not happen quickly: there are about 420,000 EVs on the road today in a national fleet of around 20m cars, roughly 2%.

Australia

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