Which Australian postcodes have the highest EV uptake?

New data has revealed that Brisbane and the Gold Coast make up two of the top three Local Government Area’s in Australia with the highest number of total electric vehicles (EVs) registered, as at the end of January 31. 

The data, collected by the Australian Automobile Association (AAA), paints a mixed picture of who is buying and registering EVs and where. But to find the ACT (predictable) sandwiched between the two Sunshine State locales is a bit of a surprise.

But while Brisbane and the Goldie’s surging EV registrations are the backbone for Queensland’s total EV adoption figures, penetration of battery cars into other parts of the state isn’t as strong as in NSW and Victoria, where strong uptake of EVs is spread more evenly across LGAs in the major centres.

It means these two states are still leading as the country’s EV uptake, in spite of government policies in Victoria that are actively disincentivising electric adoption.

Both states are funding the rollout of EV chargers.

National vehicle registration figures show that BEV penetration of the Australian light vehicle fleet doubled between 31 January 2022 and 2023, rising from 0.18 per cent to 0.38 per cent.

The ACT has the country’s highest BEV penetration of 0.97 per cent of all light vehicle registrations as at 31 January 2023 — a milestone that’s easier to reach with its small population than the next closest, NSW with 0.41 per cent and Victoria with 0.39 per cent.

Well-heeled Sydney LGAs on the outskirts of the city – the Northern Beaches, Ku-ring-gai, and Hornsby – led the state in EV adoption but Blacktown, one of the countries’ most diverse areas according to the 2021 census and a suburb one redditor last year called “boring but mostly pleasant”, rounded out the top 10.

Victoria’s top 10 however were almost entirely clustered in Melbourne’s east, with only Melbourne city deviating from that norm.

Although Brisbane and Gold Coast are the national hotspots in terms of Local Government Areas for EV adoption, not much else is happening outside the main centres.

Queensland and Western Australia have below-average penetration rates of battery electric vehicles and hybrids, the AAA found.

Since this data was collected, Queensland has doubled the size of the rebates available for EVs to $6000 but also muddied the waters on how owners can charge them by restricting more powerful chargers from using electricity from an owner’s own rooftop solar panels.

In Tasmania, EV registrations were below the national average at the end of January this year at 0.31 per cent compared to 0.38 per cent nationally, but sales in the June quarter as a proportion of all cars sold made it second only to the ACT.

EV sales reached 9.98 per cent in the June quarter compared to the national average of 8.67 per cent.

In the vast Northern Territory, hybrid vehicles are preferred over pure battery electric ones. In the June quarter, NT hybrid sales grew faster than BEV sales even though they were coming from an already much higher base, with 248 hybrid vehicles sold versus 63 EVs.