Want to save Australia $500b? Buy an electric car

Want to save Australia $500b? Buy an electric car. Yes, Australia could save $500b in health costs by switching its entire new vehicle fleet to EVs by 2035, according to a new Deloitte study commissioned by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF).

Whether it’s a Hyundai Ioniq, Kia EV6, Nissan LEAF or Tesla Model 3, purchasing a new EV won’t just lower your running-costs bill, but will lower the country’s health budget, too.

While most electric vehicle studies focus on environmental impacts and running costs, the ACF report instead focuses on the spiralling health costs associated with the increased air, noise, water and greenhouse pollution from petrol and diesel vehicles.

READ MORE: Complete guide to discounts and incentives when buying an electric car

The study found that, if EV take-up stalls and the country remains in a business as usual state to 2050, Australia faces health costs of more than $864b, with air-pollution alone costing almost $500b.

But those costs fall in line with the speed of EV take-up. If electric vehicles make up 26 percent of the private fleet by 2030, and 100per cent of the fleet by 2050, those total health costs would fall by $233b. If we hit 28 percent EV take-up by 2030, and 100 percent by 2045, then we could save $335b in health costs.

And in the (sadly unlikely) scenario in which we manage a full transition to electric vehicles by 2035, then a total $492b in health costs could be saved.

“We create invisible, unborne costs whenever we go driving. Obviously we pay for fuel and the maintenance, but there are these additional costs we impose on our neighbours and our community,” says Deloitte Access Economics’ Dr Eamon McGinn told The Guardian.

“We think about petrol costs, we think about getting stuck in traffic. We don’t necessarily think about the noise, or the pollution coming out the tailpipe or the damage to waterways.”

Australia is some way of any of those numbers, despite EV uptake growing all the time here. More electrified vehicles were sold in the first half of 2021 than in all of 2020, for example, but they are still yet to make any real dent in total sales figures.

According Australia’s Electric Vehicle Council, some 8688 electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles were sold in the first half of 2021, accounting for just over 1.5 percent of total vehicle sales.

But with incentives now coming into play in some Australian states – including in NSW, where a $490 million investment to kickstart EV sales includes subsidies and tax breaks – the hope is those sales numbers will begin to rapidly rise.

So, want to save Australia $500b? Buy an electric car.