Electric vehicle uptake in Australia is accelerating as anxiety about fuel shortages and rising petrol prices grows.

A month into the ongoing war with Iran, new car sales data released today show the share of EVs has doubled compared to March last year.

The sales spike is just one signal that the country’s car market is shifting, with online searches and showroom visitors surging. But as the world clamps down on fuel supplies and households look to lower their costs, experts are warning that now is the time to iron out existing roadblocks to that transition.

EVs claim market share

March data for new car sales shows battery electric vehicles increased by 23 per cent compared with the previous month. The increase comes despite overall new car sales dropping by 3.3 per cent.

While Australia’s embrace of rooftop solar has been nothing short of staggering — one in three homes now generate their own power — EVs did not quite get the same embrace. 

Analysis by clean energy tech think tank Ember shows Australia’s share of new EVs sold in 2025 (14.3 per cent) lagged behind emerging economies such as Vietnam (38 per cent) and Thailand (21 per cent).

But since the conflict in the Middle East brought global fuel vulnerability to the fore, consumer interest has spiked. Google data shows searches for the term EV have almost tripled from the start of the year to the end of March.

Online marketplace Carsales.com reports searches had tripled from February to March 2026.

It has been a noticeable turnaround in the showrooms of Swedish EV brand Polestar as well.

Polestar Australia managing director Scott Maynard said he had to roster extra staff on the weekends to deal with the onslaught of potential buyers.

He said sales in the first quarter of 2026 had almost doubled compared to the same time last year.

“It’s almost been like a sale weekend every weekend, which is not normal for a March trading period,” he said.

“We’ve seen really high showroom traffic. Customers making appointments, customers waiting for test drives, and so we’ve had to put on extra staff to handle the demand.”

It is a similar story at top-selling Chinese automaker BYD and GWM, both reporting significant sales increases for electric and hybrid cars since the start of the fuel crisis.

Paul Ellis, a spokesman for BYD, said the jump was likely due to a combination of rising fuel costs, inflation and interest rates.

John Kett, chief operating officer for Great Wall Motor (GWM) Australia, was also seeing a spike in interest.

“We’ve seen a rapid increase in electric and hybrid vehicle sales,” Mr Kett said.

Fuel shortages catalyst for change

After two years of mulling over buying an EV, Toowoomba couple Rachael and Alex Guinman have been making themselves known in the local BYD showroom.

Initially motivated by avoiding “bringing another petrol car into the world”, a lack of EV charging infrastructure in inland Queensland had been holding the couple back. 

But, they said, the evolving fuel crisis had evened the playing field.

“That range anxiety applies just as much to petrol as it does to EVs at the moment.”

Considering the up-front costs of buying a new car, the couple is aware it will be a while before the EV will pay off financially.

The sums started to make a lot of sense for newly minted EV owners Ann Hewitt and her husband Brian after their last full tank set them back $200 at the bowser.

“There’s the cost of the car, of course,” Ms Hewitt said.

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For the Hewitts, switching to an EV was not just driven by the current petrol price volatility — it was about future cash flow.

“Future-proofing ourselves in terms of income, what we spend in the years to come as we retire,” Ms Hewitt said.

Used EV market heating up

Many Australians still cannot, or will not, buy a new electric car. But the used-car market is starting to move.

Brendon Green, a general manager at Pickles Auctions, said interest in pre-owned EVs was rising even before the Iran conflict, but accelerated as fuel prices climbed.

“We’ve seen EV searches on our website jump up to about 111 per cent when you compare that to February,” he said.

There had also been a surge in younger buyers, with almost half of those purchasing a used EV at the auctions being under 40 years old.

Previously, the majority was in the 41 to 60 age bracket.

Mr Green said he was even taking calls from car dealers who were once “gun-shy” about dealing in used EVs because EV battery life expectancy had been unclear.

But EVs have been on the road now for many years, and Pickles Auctions has been testing batteries since 2023.

“The average battery score that we have is 96 per cent out of 100 … and cars that have done 120,000 kilometres or more, it’s still 88 per cent or better.”

With EV uptake entering the fast lane, attention turns to ensuring Australia’s charging network, the electricity grid, and whether the regulatory environment can keep up.

Are we ready for more EVs?

University of Melbourne associate professor and economist Leslie Martin said one of the main issues was not how many EVs were sold, but when and where they would be charged.

“Unless you have special pricing in place, most people, when they charge their EVs, they commute to work, they come home, and then they plug in their charger,” Dr Martin said.

The energy sources servicing the evening peak were also still “dirty” coal and gas.

“We might see more and more coal power plants operating during the day that might otherwise be off so that they can be there to meet the evening peak,” she said.

To shift loads on the grid, the Australian Energy Market Operator launched a new free daytime power tariff in its latest benchmark price proposals. 

Eligible customers in Queensland, NSW and SA can charge their batteries free of charge for three hours in the middle of the day when solar is cheap and plentiful.

Dr Martin said workplace charging and better-run public charging infrastructure needed to become a focus.

And then there was the issue with social equity. Dr Martin said not everyone would be able to upgrade to an EV or charge it at home.

“You can’t be an apartment dweller, you’re unlikely to be a renter,” she said.

Home charging often depends on off-street parking and electrical upgrades that many renters will not pay for.

“I see these high petrol prices that predominantly affect people who are in the outer suburbs or in regional areas or rural areas,” Dr Martin said.

With EV running costs close to zero, Dr Martin said more driving meant further congestion on already busy roads.

“The morning and evening peaks are going to get significantly worse.”

She said taxing for road maintenance needed to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

“We shouldn’t slow down EV adoption, but we should accelerate the discussion of how we think about these taxes,” she said.

Lasting uncertainty

Back in the Polestar Australia showrooms, stock is running low on popular models of the Swedish EV brand.

Scott Maynard said the frenzy would simmer down, but there had been a shift.

“Perhaps the more pressing buyer motive at the moment is fuel security,” he said.