Fuel prices
Posted by: Luz
17th Mar 2026 06:26pm
With the cost of fuel today what is evreybodys thought on going electric? Will it really be cost efficient in the long run?
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Comments 9
jtmorri
I don’t think going electric for a car would be cost‑efficient for me. I don’t drive a lot and I’m not a big fuel consumer, so the upfront cost of the car, plus the expense of setting up home charging, just wouldn’t pay off. I would never use public charging because I value my personal safety. The public charging infrastructure in Australia is limited, often inconvenient, and stations may be damaged or simply not working. That is a turnoff if I'm to rely on it for longer trips. For the way I use a car, the outlay isn’t worth it, and I’d never get the benefit of it paying for itself. Electrification just doesn’t suit how I drive or my budget.
dee84
Nothing is cost efficient these days when it comes to essential things like cars, food, rents, bills etc etc unless its all handed to you.. just saying
kidwithsmurf
I do not believe an EV can be cost efficient for numerous reasons. These reasons are as follows in no order:
♦ Charging stations are very expensive to install, maintain and hook into the electricity grid. Meaning that the consumer has to pay more than just the electricity cost to charge.
♦ Petrol/diesel has Fuel Excises where the government makes their profit ontop of petrol/diesel. Soon they will charge an extra EV Excise so they get their cut of money from the EV's. Don't think government will miss out and let us live cheaply.
♦ Unlike petrol/diesel motorvehicles EV's can not be taken to a normally mechanic. You have to find one that specialises in them and fixing them is way more expensive because the battery related parts and technology are not readily available or easily obtained.
♦ Charging time. Time is money and money is time. You can fill up your petrol/diesel motorvehicle in under 5minutes. Whereas with an EV, you have to wait for a charger to be free, then wait for the vehicle to charge. This adds more planning and more time taken out of your day where you could be productive. Thus losing you money whilst it charges.
♦Distance. A lot of EV's can't travel the same distance as a Petrol or Diesel car on one tank. So you'd be charging it more often, thus paying to charge more often and taking more productive time out of your life.
♦Potential fees if they ever decide we can't use petrol/diesel motorvehicles anymore. Because someone has to pay for the destruction of the petrol/diesel motorvehicles and deal with the existing petrol stations and the installation of charging stations. I believe this won't all be free and we all will be paying for this for a long time, in some way shape or form.
♦No re-sale value. Unlike petrol and diesel cars where you can tell wear and tear pretty easily and sell your motorvehicle second hand, EV's are way harder to sell second hand. This is because you have no idea of the charge cycles, the battery damage/wear etc. Plus, unlike a petrol or diesel motorvehicles where you can almost be guaranteed to get x km's out of a second hand one, with EV's you are not guaranteed the battery won't just die or catch fire as soon as you drive off as you have no idea of the wear and tear etc. This is a huge problem, leaving no resale value in a second hand EV. Also, if something was to go wrong with the second hand EV Battery, it's way more expensive to fix the battery than if something was to go wrong the motor/fuel line of a petrol or diesel motorvehicle.
♦Disposal problem long term which could add hidden fees to Australian EV owners. When an EV is unwanted, it can't simply go to landfill like a petrol/diesel motorvehicle as the lithium-ion battery is dangerous to be buried as it creates toxic leaching, battery fires etc.
The above list could probably go on and on and on... so I'll cut it short and wrap it up here.
But to finish my points, in the long run, I don't believe EV's will ever be cost efficient. Especially when the government starts making their cut from them. Because now they've incentivised us to get an EV by giving us tax deduction on tax returns, made them cheaper to charge and run, no fuel excise, made us believe they are better for the economy etc. This is to get us to buy one and now that people are starting, the government will take their cut, repairs will be more expensive as more people are trying to source the already hard to make/obtain parts such as the batteries and more people are trying to charge them so more charging stations will need to be made and as more demand hits the electricity grid to charge them, the charging prices will go up.
Lastly, we are trying all this renewable energy as we want to be more sustainable and can't keep using coal to power electricity forever. But we haven't found a long term solution that actually works yet. So if this is the case, adding charging stations for EV's to the grid will only cause more problems as the already overloaded power grid will become more overloaded. This further overloading will cause higher electricity prices overall to fund a solution to be found to fix the overloading problem and find a long term grid solution that will make enough electricity for Australia.
On a separate note, in my opinion, I'd recommend getting a Hybrid for now as they do not use charging stations, have great KM range and you don't have to worry about future EV taxes, charging station installation fees, electricity worries or grid overloading problems etc.
abarnes
I'll be going electric in early 2027 when I hope the EV I've been waiting for, is finally released in Australia.
I can't answer that second part of your question because I have no idea what will happen with the cost of energy going forward. However, generally, service plans are set on 24-month durations and there'll be no fees for disposal of engine oil... so the servicing costs should be less.
isaacsmum
We’ve been driving hybrid for a while (as in before it was trendy). It works for us being a one-car family that are frequent public transport users. We did consider going full electric (our suburb are full of electric cars and well resourced with public chargers). However when we went new car shopping we were warned against it due to poor resell value with everyone wanting only new electric cars whereas hybrid cars were in strong demand secondhand. With the way we use our hybrid we don’t feel the sting of the inflated fuel cost and can stay on budget. Having said that we have made more conscious choices as to when we drive, use buses or just walk.
Keerah1
I have mixed feelings about this one. Mainly are there enough electric stations where I go next.
chickenman
EV's are not yet ready to replace petrol/diesel vehicles, especially for rural areas. at present the cost of battery replacement may out way the benefits, and electricity prices are not yet stable enough for everyone to use and benefit.
cazter
I have no interest in going electric so will continue to travel in my petrol car. With the high cost of living in Australia, I don't have any spare cash to buy another car anyway.
Nosyar
This will be the best of all options to replace petrol cars with new technologies of EV cars. Low maintenance and better mileage compared to petrol and diesel cars. It gives a better privilege even to charge your car at home without the queues in petrol kiosk or station.