With skyrocketing fuel prices showing no signs of slowing down, electric vehicles (EVs) are receiving more scrutiny than ever. But there are still a lot of misconceptions around about what life with an EV is really like.
– In Tasmania, EVs are not “powered by coal”. Our state’s power generation is over 100% renewable – your vehicle will be running on water and air (hydro and wind power)
– You don’t need any special modifications to your home’s electricity system to charge your car – you just plug the charger into a regular power point
– You won’t be spending your days trying to find public chargers – most people who use their EV for their daily commute do 100% of their charging at home. Even older EVs (such as 10 year old Nissan Leafs) have a range of 120 kilometers – plenty for most people in Tasmania to do their daily commute. Newer vehicles like the Kia EV6 have a range of over 500km.
– You don’t need to have any special knowledge about charging systems and connectors and those sorts of things. Once you have your car with it’s charging cable that you can plug in at home, that’s all you need!
Imagine never having to go to a petrol station again. Imagine the money and time you will save!
So how do you buy an EV?
– new and used EVs can be searched on regular car trading websites. Carsales currently has 783 electric vehicles listed across Australia, ranging from 10 year old Nissan Leaf’s for around $15,000 right up to Porsche Taycan Turbo Auto AWDs starting at around $300,000.
– New Teslas can be purchased online from their website and are delivered to your door
– Lots of regular car makers now have electric vehicles available and in stock in Tasmania for you to test drive before you buy. Get in contact with your local new car dealers such as Hyundai, Nissan, Mini, Kia, Lexus, Mercedes, Audi, Volvo and BMW.
And lastly, in Tasmania, stamp duty on electric vehicles is waived 100%, which has reduced the price of a new EV by around $3000, and likely contributed to the recent massive jump in EV sales.
Image: Australian Electric Vehicle Association Tasmania Branch
