EV owners’ charging concern lags petrol-price worry as market growth intensifies

NRMA survey puts charging anxiety in context

NRMA research released on 19 August says EV owners are less concerned about charging than petrol drivers are about fuel prices during the ongoing Iran war. The NRMA Index drew responses from 42,472 members, including 1,730 EV owners, in what it described as its largest membership survey. Within that EV subgroup, 68% said they were concerned about lack of charging infrastructure, while 75% of combustion-engine owners said they were most concerned about rising fuel costs. ¹

The same NRMA release said EV owners’ next-largest concerns were poor road conditions at 59% and speeding or dangerous drivers at 56%. It also said 72% of EV owners planned road trips in the next 12 months, 92% said travel was quite easy, very easy or extremely easy, and 74% wanted the NRMA to support the EV transition through chargers and consumer education. ¹

Broader market data shows EV uptake continuing to climb

A University of Technology Sydney piece published on 21 August said battery-powered EV sales nearly tripled in the first half of 2026 and represented 23.4% of the new-car market, up from 8.4% in January. It said July figures suggested the trend would continue, with more than 108,000 new cars hitting the road in July and more than a fifth of them battery-powered EVs. ²

UTS also said Tesla and Polestar delivered more than four times as many new vehicles in July as in the same month last year, while BYD increased its new-car sales by 70.5% year on year. The article linked the growth to a broader shift in market composition, including stronger demand for plug-in hybrids and the rapid rise of Chinese brands in the Australian market. ²

CommBank highlights sales momentum, finance demand and price segmentation

Commonwealth Bank said in July that EVs and hybrids were taking a bigger share of new-car sales even though petrol and diesel still dominate the national fleet. It said the Electric Vehicle Council reported full EVs and plug-in hybrids reached 35.8% of new passenger car sales in June 2026, with almost 49,000 EVs sold and full EVs accounting for one in every four car sales. The bank also noted that June included end-of-financial-year effects and pre-ordered deliveries, so that pace may not repeat every month. ³

CommBank’s piece added that its lending data showed a 161% lift in demand for EV finance in March compared with February. Separately, it said the federal government’s latest National Electric Vehicle Strategy update listed 153 EV models available by June 2025, up from 104 in 2023-24, including 26 models priced below $50,000 and 55 below $60,000. ³

Charging remains the key practical issue as infrastructure and rules evolve

On 26 June, EV Infrastructure News reported that the Australian Energy Market Commission had begun a review of electricity network regulation, with EV charging infrastructure among the first issues to be examined. The review’s first package will consider what services networks should provide, which should be open to competition, and how service classification and ring-fencing should work. Package 2 will look at how the framework ensures networks operate efficiently and how costs are shared, with a final report expected in the fourth quarter of 2027. ⁴

The same report said the review was prompted in part by rule change requests from Energy Networks Australia and Nexa Advisory, the first proposing that distribution networks be allowed to install and operate kerbside EV charging as a regulated service, and the second proposing stronger ring-fencing rules. The AEMC said reliable and convenient charging is critical for people who cannot charge at home, including apartment dwellers and those without off-street parking. ⁴

Public charging growth is fast, but reliability and planning remain central

UTS said Australia’s charging network was expanding quickly, citing federal government data that by June 2025 there were 1,324 public fast and ultra-fast charging sites and 4,138 fast and ultra-fast plugs, up from 812 sites in December 2023. It also said the national network still lagged many other countries on chargers per EV, with Australia near the bottom of the International Energy Agency’s ranking. ²

The UTS article argued that the next challenge is not just installation but governance and uptime, including minimum standards, linking funding to performance and better disclosure of charging data. It said Australia can still keep pace for now, but warned that growth in EV ownership will expose weaknesses if existing chargers are left to fail or disappear. ²

Education and infrastructure are emerging as the shared policy thread

Taken together, the sources point to a market where charging concern is real but not the only issue: most EV owners in the NRMA survey still described travel as easy, while CommBank and UTS both showed rapid sales growth and a broader shift in consumer choice. The AEMC review shows regulators are now being forced to consider how electricity networks, chargepoint operators and consumers should share responsibility for the next phase of charging rollout. The common thread across the reporting is not that EV ownership is becoming harder, but that public understanding, planning and operating standards are becoming more important as the market scales. ¹³⁴