South Australia to join NSW and Victoria with electric vehicle incentives

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The South Australian parliament has passed a bill which will see $22.7 million invested into the growth of electric vehicles in the state.

The package will include a three-year registration free period for any electric vehicle purchased prior to 30 June 2025. 

An incentives program will also be introduced, providing a $3000 subsidy to the first 7000 customers who purchase an electric vehicle within South Australia. 

This is a similar situation to what has already been put in place in NSW and Victoria. 

NSW announced in June 2021 that the government would subsidise the first 25,000 electric vehicles with a rebate of $3000. The only catch is that the car must fall below the price point of $68,750, which leaves out quite a few EVs currently for sale on the market. 

Victoria has made similar moves, releasing an initial 4000 incentives at $3000 each. The government says that a total of 20,000 subsidies will be available on eligible vehicles purchased on or after 2 May 2021. 

Victoria does however tax EV owners 2.5 cents for every kilometre driven which has been seen as a step backwards in encouraging EV use. 

Queensland does not currently have any incentive programs and has been slow to announce any news on this front. However, the QLD government says there are plans in the works. 

When you compare Australia to other countries in the world, however, it is clear that the land down under is slow to adopt incentives common in many other areas of the world. 

Norway, for example, is the leading country globally for electric vehicle uptake. 

There are several incentives in Norway for those who own an electric vehicle, including no annual road tax, 50 percent off ferry fees, access to bus lanes, no purchase or import taxes and company car tax reduced to 40 percent. 

That certainly makes our $3000 incentive seem reasonably small compared to the amount of incentives elsewhere in the world. 

Australia has a long way to go before it can be a real competitor in the EV space and truly show the rest of the world what it is made of. 

Extra perks for EV owners in South Australia

Earlier this year, the South Australian government announced that they would fund a $13.4 million scheme to install 530 electric vehicle chargers across the state. 

120 of which will be installed within the Adelaide CBD accessible to 10 car parks with 12 chargers a piece. 

The chargers will be available at a 7kW limit which should be enough for most EVs.

70 chargers will be built in pairs near supermarkets and main streets which are capable of supplying 75kW. 

A further 40, 100kW chargers will be installed near tourism hotspots such as the Adelaide Hills, Limestone Coast and Eyre Peninsula.