Electric vehicles are becoming more visible on city streets, especially around CBDs and affluent inner suburbs, but the pattern of adoption is uneven across the country. Data from a national motoring body, compiled from registration records in early 2025, shows that areas where EVs make up more than 5% of all registered vehicles are mostly close to the centres of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra. In contrast, most outer metropolitan suburbs sit in the 1 to 3% range and many regional communities barely register on the EV map, which highlights how income, housing and access to charging quietly shape who can realistically switch to an electric car.
Looking at penetration rather than raw sales makes the divide clearer. Some inner-city postcodes have EVs accounting for close to 15% of local registrations, helped along by fleets and ride-share businesses registered in those areas, while university districts and CBDs in major capitals often sit above 7%. On the other side of the spectrum, large regional centres sometimes see EVs making up less than 1% of vehicles on the road. Towns in inland Queensland and remote parts of New South Wales, for example, record only a handful of EVs out of many thousands of cars, with some communities showing no EV registrations at all.
The numbers also show that government tax breaks are nudging some buyers but not transforming the market everywhere. A federal fringe benefits tax exemption for EVs has become popular with salary packaging providers and is particularly attractive to workers in professions like education, healthcare and emergency services where novated leases are common. This incentive tends to show up strongly in certain outer suburban areas where households often have more off-street parking and garage space to install chargers. Even so, some of the postcodes with the heaviest use of this tax break still sit at only 1.3 to just over 3% EV penetration, which suggests that upfront costs, limited model availability and range concerns continue to hold many drivers back.
Stepping back, the uneven spread of EVs looks like one of the biggest practical hurdles to meeting Australia’s climate targets. To cut emissions by close to two-thirds by the mid 2030s compared with 2005 levels, more than half of all new car purchases over the next decade would need to be electric, yet most Australians live in outer suburbs or regional cities where uptake is still modest. Policy agencies point out that higher incomes and shorter commutes naturally favour inner-city adoption, while regional drivers often tow trailers, caravans or horse floats and travel long distances, which makes current EV ranges feel less reliable. Unless prices fall further, charging networks expand and vehicles better suited to regional and towing needs become commonplace, the shift to EVs seems likely to stay concentrated in specific postcodes rather than becoming a truly national transition.
