Transport Minister Barnaby Joyce has quashed the prospect of Australia replicating overseas bans on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars, as the Turnbull government debates whether to encourage the electric vehicle industry.

Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg this week strongly backed the prospects of electric vehicles in Australia against opposition from conservative backbenchers. He told Sky News on Tuesday that critics who ridiculed the technology would "probably be the ones buying them in a decade's time".

In an opinion piece for Fairfax Media this month, Mr Frydenberg said Australia should prepare for the electric car revolution that has already swept Europe and will soon hit China. He said France and Britain would end the sale of new diesel and petrol cars by 2040, and Norway and the Netherlands aimed to do so by 2025.

Asked whether Australia would follow suit, a spokeswoman for Infrastructure and Transport Minister Barnaby Joyce on Tuesday said his government had "no plan to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars ... Australia's transport policies are modelled on Australia's needs." His office declined to elaborate.