Potential for electric vehicle adoption in Australia

Data from the New South Wales (NSW) Household Travel Survey (2014/15) was analyzed to determine the trip-by-trip range of automobile travel in NSW. The results show that 88% of trips were less than 30 km, which could readily be provided by electric vehicles, consuming a total of 18 GWh in electrical energy per weekday. Even if all electric vehicles were recharged from non-renewable coal-fired power plants, the greater efficiency of electric vehicles would result in a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions across NSW by 18% carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2(eq)). Additionally, we mapped the average state of charge distribution of the electric vehicles at key times during the day, indicating the maximum net load (for recharging) and/or available energy (for vehicle-to-grid services) across NSW. The results are consistent with other international studies and demonstrate the potential for wide scale electric vehicles adoption in Australia.