Who is driving electric cars in Brisbane? The suburbs with the most and fewest EVs

The day after being handed the keys to their new BYD electric car Jon Bentley, his wife and their two sons decided to drive interstate. “Driving at night, driving long distance and not knowing how to charge it was quite stressful … but after that first night it got easier,” Bentley said.

The Tarragindi family had good reason to hit the highway – they wanted to reach Melbourne in time to watch the Lions play in the 2023 AFL grand final. They made it, although their team was defeated. Bentley could be forgiven for choosing to drive a luxury car synonymous with his last name, but he was happy to be an early adopter of the Chinese-manufactured BYD under a salary sacrifice arrangement.

Generous tax breaks have been the driving force behind EV uptake in Brisbane, before a recent rush of interest was prompted by the war in Iran and subsequent surge in fuel prices. Data from the Department of Transport and Main Roads shows that the highest proportion of EVs in Brisbane are registered to businesses. Associate Professor Gavin Northey, consumer and marketing lecturer at Griffith University, said 48 per cent of all EVs in Queensland are registered to addresses in Brisbane’s CBD.

“The skew we see in the data is more than likely due to company-owned EVs being registered to corporate offices in Brisbane,” he said. Outside areas skewed by commercial fleet and car yard registrations and large business and industrial estates, the uptake of EVs has been strongest in the heavily car-reliant suburb of Rochedale, about 20 kilometres south of the CBD. Twelve per cent of all 6044 registered passenger vehicles in Rochdale are EVs, while 11 per cent are hybrids.

But the data chiefly illustrates the city’s wealth divide. Drivers in the affluent, leafy suburbs of Upper Brookfield, Fig Tree Pocket, Pullenvale, Bardon, Kenmore Hills and Chapel Hill, and the inner-southern suburb of Seven Hills have been the keenest adopters of all-electric vehicles. “The upfront cost is one of the primary barriers to whether people can afford it or not, it’s still quite high relative to petrol cars.

It does tend to be those of higher socioeconomic backgrounds who can afford it,” Macquarie University’s economics Associate Professor Rohan Best said. Northey added: “There is a large body of research that directly links income, education and socioeconomic status with EV adoption. Given that, we would expect more affluent suburbs to have higher rates of EV adoption.”

But a combination of factors such as a lack of chargers, higher costs and range anxiety mean some still hesitate before making the switch from petrol to electric. Here, Northey said plug-in electric hybrids were acting as a transitional technology. In the northern suburb of Virginia, nearly a quarter of all vehicles are hybrids.

Murrarie, Kedron and Kangaroo Point also have a high concentration of hybrids. Across most Brisbane suburbs, the ratio of hybrids is higher than full electric vehicles. “Consumers want to buy electric vehicles and reduce their dependence on fuel.

But consumers still have anxiety about range, availability of charging infrastructure and overall cost, so the PHEVs (plug-in electric hybrid vehicles) are really serving as a form of ‘transitional technology’,” Northey said. “These are basically the consumers who want to reduce fuel costs and energy dependence, but aren’t yet ready to commit financially, practically or psychologically to the full battery electric vehicle.” Analysis of the raw figures suggests other factors may also be at play.

The suburbs with the highest number of registered electric vehicles include West End, Calamvale, Carindale and Sunnybank Hills. “A plausible explanation for high EV numbers in some suburbs might also come down to a suburb’s ethnic mix. In suburbs like Calamvale and Sunnybank Hills, for example, nearly a third of all residents share some Chinese ancestry,” Northey said.

“In these suburbs, there may be some form of ‘country-of-origin’ effect, where it’s really quite natural to have [Chinese manufactured EVs] in their consideration set.” Practicality is another factor. “In some suburbs, particularly those a little further from the city, garages are more common so it is much easier to actually charge a vehicle, particularly when you compare this to inner-city suburbs where garages may be rare, or apartment living doesn’t allow the charging infrastructure,” he said.

The global surge in fuel prices this year coincided with the arrival of more EV models across every major price tier on the market. Almost one in seven cars sold across Australia in March was an EV, according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries. Last month, a purpose-built ship owned by BYD docked in Melbourne carrying 5000 vehicles, which one energy analyst described as a turning point in the electrification of Australian road transport.

Bentley has no regrets about purchasing his BYD three years ago. He now saves up between $200 to $300 a month on petrol costs, and hi