When we think about electrifying and reducing our household’s emissions, our car might not be the first thing that comes to mind. Yet, by far, vehicles are the biggest energy users in our homes (69% of our energy use), costing us an average of $3000 per year on fuel alone.

The single biggest impact we could make is to not drive a petrol or diesel car. Of course, we advocate for that meaning fewer car trips and more active and public transport use. It also means if you are using a car, consider it to be an electric one.

While regulatory and market conditions haven’t been as favourable for electric vehicles (EVs) in Australia as they have been in Europe and Asia, things are starting to change and this year 9% of car sales were EVs, with the Tesla Model Y taking over from the Ford Ranger as the 2nd most sold car. Prices are starting to fall and companies like NRMA and governments are quickly building charging infrastructure to facilitate the transition.

EVs are no longer a futuristic pipedream but they’re a reality now and it’s a matter of how fast can we speed up the process to reduce the emissions coming from our tailpipes.

We totally understand that EVs are expensive and, for many, still a bit of an enigma. While as a community group we can’t do a huge amount to reduce the price of EVs, there are some things we can do to potentially support your consideration and transition to an EV or other electric transport option and we’re currently surveying community members on their thoughts.

For instance, would you consider leasing an EV for a short-time as a “try before you buy”? Would you be interested in a bulk buy of pre-owned EVs? Is novated leasing an option for you? (It’s the cheapest way to get an EV due to recent changes to vehicle taxes.) We’re also curious to know if community members would be interested in owning or leasing an electric bike (the pedal-powered ones, not the throttle ones) as we’re looking into those options too. Please have your say by completing the short survey at the below URL or QR code.

Finally, the wonderful Electrify 2515 volunteers have been attending community events, such as last month’s NRMA Drive Day, to talk about the benefits and practicalities of owning or leasing an EV. We’re working towards a community electric transport event in a couple of months, so if you have ideas of what you’d find useful to include,
we’d love to hear from you as always.

Electric transport survey: 2515transport.paperform.co