Caleb Bond: Forcing EVs on Australia's 4,000km terrain is just impractical - much like ripping up roads so two men and a dog in a sidecar can use a bike lane
What a rotten bit of luck.
This is according to consumer comparison service Compare the Market, which assessed global cities against the number of chargers, EVs and sales per capita, government incentives and the cost of power.
The top 10 cities are, surprise surprise, all in Europe save for Montreal and the top three are all in the Netherlands.
What could it be that makes EVs so much more popular in Europe than Australia?
Oh, that's right – our country is nearly 4,000km wide and our capital cities have significant urban sprawl.
In fact, our cities rank amongst the largest urban sprawls in the world per head of population.
That, of course, is because we live in a big country with plenty of space so most of us choose not to live on top of each other – unlike those tiny European countries where that's just how things are done.
Who would have thought that smaller countries, which naturally mean you have less distance to travel on a regular basis, would be more conducive to owning an EV?
It has become blindingly obvious that the reduction in Australian EV sales is simply the result of market forces.
It's not that people have anything particularly against electric vehicles themselves, they just want cars that are practical in a big country like Australia.
If you only drive around the city then sure, you might be fine.
But a lot of people don't.
And it's ridiculous to expect a charger to be available everywhere in this wide brown land.
Australia is not built to be an EV country in the same way it's not built to be a cycling country.
The government can try to force EVs upon us with subsidies or whatever else they can dream up but, at some point, practicalities have to enter the equation.
Just as councils can try to force us to ride bikes instead of driving cars by continually ripping out perfectly good lanes of traffic to replace them with sheltered bike lanes used by two men and a dog in a sidecar.
Despite building all these bike lanes, nearly all of them are empty most of the time.
I wonder why that might be?
Oh, yes – we have that massive urban sprawl which means most people live a fair way from the CBD and find it far more comfortable to travel to town by car or public transport.
It is no coincidence that the country recognised to be one of the most cycling-friendly in the world – the Netherlands – is also ranked the best for EVs.
You can't force a square peg into a round hole.
We just need to admit it.
But we also mustn't forget the other great barrier to Australian EV ownership – the trifling issue of having to fill it up with electricity which, as I'm sure you know, is quite expensive.
We have some of the most expensive electricity in the world, in fact.
If only Albo gave us that $275 he promised us off our power bills, maybe it'd be a different story.
Caleb Bond is the Host of The Sunday Showdown, Sundays at 7.00pm and co-host of The Late Debate Monday – Thursday at 10.00pm as well as a SkyNews.com.au Contributor. Bond also writes a weekly opinion column for The Advertiser
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Content originally sourced from: Honda Australia says it doesn't need to join the flurry of brands adding dual-cab utes to their Australian lineups – not right now, anyway. The Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux utes have been the best-selling vehicles in Australia for the past decade – the HiLux from 2015 through 2022, the Ranger since. In 2025 alone, they've been joined by new entrants including the Kia Tasman – the South Korean brand's first dual-cab ute – as well as the Chinese BYD Shark 6 and LDV Terron 9."Does every brand need one? No," Honda Australia CEO Jay Joseph told CarExpert. "Do we need one? Not necessarily, but if we have one it needs to be the right one." CarExpert can save you thousands on a new car. Click here to get a great deal. 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"The current Ridgeline – as it's configured in the United States – Australian customers expect more towing capacity than that offers, [and] obviously right-hand drive sort of takes it off the table, and it's not this product that's in its ninth year." The Ridgeline uses unibody construction – like passenger cars – where the most popular dual-cabs in Australia use body-on-frame construction which is preferred for off-roading. At 5339mm length, it's only slightly longer than a HiLux, and is powered by a 209kW/355Nm 3.5-litre V6 petrol engine with a towing capacity of 2286kg – well short of the benchmark 3500kg tow rating of leading dual cabs sold here. "In terms of a ute – and it's been a long question for Honda for many years – in some ways, yeah we'd love it and we'd love to have had it for a number of years, but it's not available," said Honda Australia managing director Rob Thorp. "We've seen growth opportunities in the market without that [a dual-cab ute] in our product portfolio right now." "Even when you look at the markets as they are, there's still a lot in passenger, in SUV, and there's a lot of opportunity in those segments that we are probably more nationally aligned to. "If one's available [a ute], we'd look at it – but it's not something we desperately, desperately need to be successful." Nikkei reported earlier this month that Nissan has commenced discussions with Honda to supply it with a ute out of an under-utilised plant in the US. Should this ute eventuate, it could potentially be related to Nissan's body-on-frame Frontier, however like that model it could be left-hand drive-only. MORE: Explore the Honda Australia showroom MORE: Is Honda planning a proper ladder-frame ute to take on the Ford Ranger? Content originally sourced from: Honda Australia says it doesn't need to join the flurry of brands adding dual-cab utes to their Australian lineups – not right now, anyway. The Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux utes have been the best-selling vehicles in Australia for the past decade – the HiLux from 2015 through 2022, the Ranger since. In 2025 alone, they've been joined by new entrants including the Kia Tasman – the South Korean brand's first dual-cab ute – as well as the Chinese BYD Shark 6 and LDV Terron 9."Does every brand need one? No," Honda Australia CEO Jay Joseph told CarExpert. "Do we need one? Not necessarily, but if we have one it needs to be the right one." CarExpert can save you thousands on a new car. Click here to get a great deal. 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"We've seen growth opportunities in the market without that [a dual-cab ute] in our product portfolio right now." "Even when you look at the markets as they are, there's still a lot in passenger, in SUV, and there's a lot of opportunity in those segments that we are probably more nationally aligned to. "If one's available [a ute], we'd look at it – but it's not something we desperately, desperately need to be successful." Nikkei reported earlier this month that Nissan has commenced discussions with Honda to supply it with a ute out of an under-utilised plant in the US. Should this ute eventuate, it could potentially be related to Nissan's body-on-frame Frontier, however like that model it could be left-hand drive-only. MORE: Explore the Honda Australia showroom MORE: Is Honda planning a proper ladder-frame ute to take on the Ford Ranger? Content originally sourced from:
