Planning for electric vehicles in Australia: can we match environmental requirements, technology and travel demand?

Electric vehicles recharged from renewable energy sources will play an important role in reducing vehicle emissions. But there are several policy and infrastructure issues that need to be addressed to encourage the uptake of electric vehicles: 1. per capita CO2 emissions targets must be sufficiently stringent to stabilise atmospheric CO2 at a sustainable level; 2. the cost of CO2 must be high enough to cause the required emissions reductions; 3. published vehicle CO2 emission data should be based on well-to-wheel emissions for all vehicles; 4. subsidies or tax benefits may be required to offset high initial costs associated with new clean vehicle technologies; 5. standards for public and private charging infrastructure are required; 6. standards for demand management of electrical loads will be required, to cope with both increasing demand and with supply variability (as the proportion of electricity generated from renewable sources is increased). This paper addresses these questions, and provides a number of important recommendations for transport planning and management. (a) For the covering record of the conference, please refer to ITRD no. E218380.