Browse
Log in / Register
Share
As of July 2, 2026, one thing is becoming impossible to ignore for anyone buying an electric car: charging infrastructure is still the weak link. The latest annual “State of EVs” report from Australia’s Electric Vehicle Council, now in its tenth year, analyzed the 2025–26 financial year and found that while EV sales hit record levels, public charging networks remain fragmented and underfunded. That conclusion will feel familiar to U.S. drivers, where the same gap between surging EV interest and real-world charging convenience is playing out from coast to coast.
Public charging is growing—but still isn’t enough
The Australian report documented a major expansion of charging hardware in that country: by June 2026 there were 4,268 public charging locations, a 235% increase from June 2025, and 11,602 individual charge points, up 175% year over year. Even with those numbers, the council was blunt: Australia still needs substantial public charging investment, and it is not as simple as installing more fast chargers.
The core insight from the report is that most EV charging happens where cars already park—at homes, apartment buildings, workplaces, destinations, kerbsides, and depots. That means the national conversation about chargers should not focus only on highway corridors. The same is true in the U.S., where a well-built high-speed charger along an interstate does little for a renter in a city who has no off-street parking. The American network has expanded, but it is heavily concentrated in coastal metropolitan areas, leaving rural and mid-sized communities underserved.
The council’s prescription is a nationally coordinated charging roadmap, not just piecemeal grants to individual networks. It also called for scaled infrastructure deployment that follows where people live and park, rather than where the math looks best for private operators. This is a lesson that U.S. policymakers at both the federal and state level have been slow to embrace.
Policy uncertainty makes the problem worse
A year ago, NRMA spokesperson Peter Khoury told CarsGuide that Australia’s charging infrastructure was nowhere near enough, pointing out that many areas cannot draw power from the grid and need their own energy sources. The new report echoes that anxiety. But infrastructure alone will not fix the EV lag: policy frameworks have to keep up too.
The Australian council is urging the federal government to tighten the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard for cars sold beyond 2029, to align with 2035 emissions targets. Carmakers need those rules years in advance because developing a new model takes several years. The report also calls for targeted equity-based policies to help economically disadvantaged Australians tap into the cost savings of EV driving—estimated at roughly $3,000 per year in lower running and maintenance costs compared with petrol or diesel cars. That figure becomes even more compelling after the substantial fuel price increases seen in 2026.
Meanwhile, Australia is debating a road-user charge to replace lost fuel excise revenue. New South Wales has proposed starting one in 2027, but the EVC argues that, if poorly designed, such a charge would slow EV adoption. U.S. states are wrestling with the same question: several are experimenting with mileage-based fees as electric vehicles erode gas-tax revenues. The Australian warning is a useful reminder that charging fees for EVs must not undo the economic case that drives people to switch.
More choice means more buyers—and more strain on chargers
On the sales side, the Australian report offers some powerful evidence that the market is ready to move. In the first half of 2026, a fully electric or plug-in hybrid car was bought every 100 seconds on average. Electric powertrains accounted for 25.8% of all new-car sales up to June 2026, more than doubling the 12.1% share from a year earlier. There were 196 full EV and plug-in hybrid models on sale, up from 153 in 2025. Sales totaled 157,957 units, a 177% jump compared with the first half of 2025.
Australia also saw its cheapest EV ever arrive: the BYD Atto 1, offered at $19,990 drive-away through December 15, 2026. The trend is similar in the U.S., where the pool of affordable EV models is expanding and prices have fallen significantly for mainstream models. Yet more EVs on the road means more pressure on a charging system that is still patchy. The International Energy Agency now says Australia’s EV uptake is in line with the global average—hardly a gold standard, but a sign that the U.S., which still trails several other markets, has little room to be complacent.
The bottom line for 2026: the one area still holding back electric cars is not desire or model choice—it is the experience of plugging in. Australia’s tenth State of EVs report makes clear that sales records can be broken even while public charging lags, but sustaining that growth depends on coordinated investment in the right places. U.S. cities and state capitals should pay attention: infrastructure is the bottleneck, and more policy focus needs to move from the highway to the kerb, the apartment garage, and the workplace lot.
