Switching to electric vehicles could see Canberrans spending a fifth of what they would driving an average petrol car on popular summer road trips from the bush capital, fresh analysis from the Climate Council has found.
The figures, released on Thursday, show that those travelling from Canberra to Byron Bay could save $177 if they drove a battery electric vehicle, versus an average passenger car that has a fuel consumption rate of 11.1 litres of petrol per 100km.
Even switching to a more efficient petrol car - like a Skoda Fabia, which uses 4.5 litres every 100km - would slash the cost of driving from Canberra to Huskisson or Melbourne by more than half, analysis found.
Economist and Climate Council councillor, Nicki Hutley, said that drivers were avoiding taking road trips at the moment, due to the cost pressures.
"Seven in 10 drivers say they're changing their driving habits, including avoiding taking roadtrips, in response to skyroacketing fuel prices," she said, citing recent polling undertaken by the advocacy organisation.
The ACT has been quick in the uptake of electric vehicles. Sales of new electric vehicles across the territory shot up by 165.3 per cent last year, according to latest industry sales data, with the Telsa Model Y named the best seller.
Dr Jennifer Rayner, head of advocacy at the Climate Council, said the stark difference in commuting costs comes down to the fact that current petrol car fleets here use more fuel than other vehicles around the world.
"One of the reasons for that is we have no fuel efficiency standards to require manufacturers to send their cleanest and cheapest-to-run cars here," Dr Rayner told The Canberra Times.
"So this analysis really highlights how much it's costing Australians to have vehicles which guzzle more fuel and produce more pollution, particularly on their summer road trip."
"... it's really useful to think that we could have these national policies in place with fuel efficiency standard, which would unlock more access to both electric vehicles and also to those more efficient petrol vehicles".
Australia is one of the few major economies without a fuel efficiency standard, which would place an annual cap on the average emissions output allowed across a manufacturer's new car sales.
The federal government launched the National Electric Vehicle strategy last April, in which they committed to introducing fuel efficiency standard to encourage vehicle suppliers to sell cleaner cars.
But almost a year on, and Australians are still waiting for the government to deliver on its promised legislation.
"2024 needs to be the year we get fuel efficiency standards so that the next year's summer road trip, more Australians can do it in the cheapest to run vehicles," Dr Rayner said.
