The big question on Australians' lips regarding electric vehicles is: when will we catch-up with the rest of the world? Going by recent announcements from the current federal government: not anytime soon.

A one-page press release from the Coalition government in late February this year (entitled “A National Strategy for Electric Vehicles”) stated: “Managed well, the shift to electric vehicles could support more efficient electricity networks by smoothing out peak demand and avoiding costly generation and network investments.” And, “addressing these issues now is necessary”.

Effectively a policy to develop a policy, it did at least give some hope that an actual policy might not be too far away. That hope was, however, dashed with the March 26 confirmation from the office of Environment Minister Melissa Price that the Coalition does not intend to release its national electric vehicles strategy until the middle of next year. To say it will miss the boat by that time is an understatement.

Around the world, electric vehicle adoption is driven by the need to clean up vehicle emissions in terms of both air pollution and greenhouse gas. This has so far been driven by governments using a three-pronged approach involving carrots, sticks and policy.