4c:Te70e,8 August 2026 · Approx. 22 minute read In June 2026, the Australian new-car market had its biggest month in recorded history: 140,058 vehicles delivered. Buried inside that number was a result the industry had been bracing for. Toyota, which has led the Australian brand table almost continuously since 2003, delivered 19,124 cars. BYD, a Chinese company that sold its first vehicle in Australia in 2022, delivered 18,881. Two hundred and forty-three cars. That was the entire distance between the most entrenched automotive brand in the country and a challenger that, five years ago, most Australians could not have picked out of a line-up. It is a tempting number to build a story on, and plenty of people did. So it is worth reporting what happened next, because it complicates the story in a way that turns out to be the most interesting thing about it. In July, Toyota delivered 20,409 cars. BYD delivered 7,857. The gap did not narrow. It blew back out to nearly three to one. Both facts are true, and neither is a fluke. June was a genuine near-miss driven by a stock surge and a subsidy-shaped run of EV demand; July was a reversion to something like the underlying trend line. And the underlying trend line is still extraordinary: through July, BYD holds 8.1% of the Australian market against Toyota's 15.6%, having roughly doubled its volume year on year while Toyota's fell 21%. The 243 cars, then, are not evidence that the old order has fallen. They are evidence that it can now be touched. That is a different and more unsettling proposition, because it means the question is no longer whether legacy brands can be beaten on product. It is what they were ever selling that wasn't product. !BYD's Explorer No. 1 car carrier loaded with electric vehicles → BYD's Explorer No. 1, the first vessel in a fleet the carmaker built for itself after concluding that shipping capacity was a bottleneck it did not want to rent. The company also makes its own battery cells, its own semiconductors and its own motors. (Image: CleanTechnica) 1 — The invention of the badge Nobody bought a brand until somebody sold them a ladder The modern car brand is not as old as the car. For the first quarter-century of the industry, a car was an engineering proposition, bought by people wealthy enough to treat one as a hobby. Around 1900 an American automobile cost between $600 and $7,500 in an era when that was life-changing money; by 1909 there were roughly 306,000 cars in the United States, about one per three hundred people. Economic historians compare owning one to owning a yacht today. There was no ladder to climb because almost nobody was on it. Henry Ford's answer was to remove choice entirely. The Model T launched on 1 October 1908 at $850. From 1910 Ford built nothing else, for seventeen years. The moving assembly line arrived at Highland Park in 1913 and cut chassis assembly from twelve and a half hours to two hours thirty-eight minutes. The productivity gap this opened is still difficult to absorb: in 1914 Ford built 260,722 cars with 13,000 workers, while every other American manufacturer combined built 286,770 cars using 66,350. By 1922 the Model T was roughly 47% of every car in America, and the price had fallen towards $300. Ford's own account of the strategy has become the most quoted line in industrial history, usually in a form he never used. The actual sentence, from My Life and Work in 1922, is: "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black." He immediately adds: "I cannot say that anyone agreed with me." It is worth noting that no contemporaneous record of him saying this in 1909 exists; the story survives only in his own memoir, written thirteen years later with a ghostwriter. The black paint, incidentally, was not chosen because it dried fastest; Ford's own engineering records show it was chosen because it was the cheapest and most durable pigment available. !Model T chassis on the moving assembly line at Highland Park, 1914 → Highland Park, 1914. Ford solved manufacturing so completely that he mistook it for having solved the business. (Image: Alameda Post archive) What broke Ford was not a better factory but Alfred Sloan at General Motors, who realised that once a car is affordable, price stops being the only axis of competition, and that the second axis is what the car says about the person driving it. GM built a price ladder: Chevrolet at the bottom, then Pontiac and Oakland, Oldsmobile, Buick, and Cadillac at the summit. "A car for every purse and purpose" is the phrase attached to it, usually to Sloan, although GM's own corporate history suggests the underlying idea came from founder William Durant and Sloan simply neglected to say so. The ladder was never as tidy in practice as in the retelling (by 1929 Oldsmobiles were selling for less than Buicks), but as a strategic concept it did something no one had done before. It made the badge on the car a statement about where you had got to in life, and it made trading up an aspiration you could act on annually. Two mechanisms turned that concept into market share. In 1927 GM created the Art and Colour Section under Harley Earl, the first in-house styling department in the industry, and the 1927 LaSalle became the first mass-production car designed by designers rather than engineers. Annual model changes followed, and with them the deliberate manufacture of dissatisfaction: your perfectly functional car was now visibly last year's. And in 1919 GM had founded GMAC to lend people the money. Ford considered buying a car on credit morally suspect and refused to offer finance until 1928. By 1930, three out of four vehicles in America were bought on time. The result: Ford held about half the American market in 1921 and under 20% by 1928. GM passed Ford temporarily in 1927, while Ford's plants sat idle retooling for the Model A, and permanently in 1931. A 1914 market research study had already diagnosed the vulnerability with brutal clarity: "People will more readily buy Fords where the kind of car they drive has little or no effect on their social standing in the community." Ford built the best product and lost. GM built the best hierarchy and won. Everything the industry has believed about brands since descends from that outcome. And the corollary: equity is spendable If a badge can be built, it can also be drained. The canonical demonstration is the Cadillac Cimarron of 1982: a Chevrolet Cavalier with a stand-up hood ornament, leather trim and, in its first model year, the same 88-horsepower 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine as the Chevrolet, sold for thousands more. It was not a bad car so much as a public admission that the badge meant nothing in particular. Cadillac spent decades recovering, and arguably never fully did. The lesson generalises: brand equity behaves like a bank balance, not a birthright, and badge engineering is a withdrawal. !Tailfins on a 1957 Cadillac → 1957 Cadillac. The fin served no aerodynamic purpose whatsoever, which was precisely the point: it existed to be recognised from behind. (Image: Wikimedia Commons) 2 — This has happened before, twice The incumbents have run this play, and lost it, in living memory Anyone arguing that Chinese carmakers cannot displace established Western brands should be made to read the press cuttings from 1970 and 1986 first. The Japanese entered America and Europe as a joke about tin cans. Contemporary press dismissed the Datsun Sunny as disposable; the Honda N600 was a $1,200 curiosity. Then reliability data started arriving and did not stop. By the early 1980s, the response was not competitive but political: the 1981 Voluntary Export Restraints capped Japanese imports at 1.68 million units, rising to 1.85 million by year four. The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland later calculated the three-year cost to American consumers at roughly $2.7 billion, of which about $2.6 billion was simply transferred to Japanese producers and American dealers as windfall profit on artificially scarce cars. The quota did not stop the Japanese. It taught them to sell fewer, more expensive vehicles, and to build factories in Ohio and Tennessee. Then they came for the top of the ladder. Lexus launched the LS400 in November 1989 at $35,350, roughly $20,000 under a comparable German sedan, and outsold BMW in the United States in its first full month. Thirty-five percent of early buyers traded in a European luxury car. BMW's US marketing vice-president had publicly predicted Lexus would take customers from Cadillac and Lincoln rather than from BMW. He was wrong within weeks. Not every attempt worked, which is the more useful half of the lesson. Infiniti launched the same month with a $60 million advertising campaign famous for showing rocks and geese rather than cars. It generated 60,000 phone calls and sold 32 vehicles a day against Lexus's 134. TIME headlined it "Phantom Car, Faint Sales"; Jay Leno's line was that sales of trees and rocks were up 300%. Buzz is not brand. !First-generation Lexus LS400 → The 1990 Lexus LS400. Dismissed on arrival as a Mercedes tribute act; within a month it was outselling BMW in America. (Image: Lexus Media) The Korean run is the one that should genuinely frighten European product planners, because it is a stopwatch. Hyundai entered the US in January 1986 with the Excel at $4,995 and set an import sales record. Within three years the brand was a punchline about cars that dissolved. Its answer, in 1998, was the ten-year, hundred-thousand-mile warranty: a naked purchase of trust at the precise moment Korea's financial credibility had collapsed. By 2004, Hyundai ranked second in J.D. Power's initial quality study, behind only Toyota. Peter Schreyer arrived from Audi in 2006 and gave Kia a face. Genesis was spun out as a standalone luxury brand in 2015. In 2024, Hyundai Motor Group ranked first in the world for initial quality. That is roughly thirty-five years from market entry to the top of the table, or about twenty-five from the reputational floor. The climb is real, it is repeatable, and it takes a generation. THE DIFFERENCE THIS TIME The Japanese and Korean waves competed on the incumbents' terms: better-built versions of a broadly similar machine, sold more cheaply, improving each year. It took decades because the underlying technology (internal combustion, gearboxes, chassis dynamics) encoded a hundred years of accumulated tacit knowledge that could only be acquired slowly. The electric drivetrain discards most of that inheritance. There is no engine to perfect, no transmission to calibrate, no cold-start emissions problem, no century of metallurgy in a cylinder head. The hard parts are now cells, power electronics, thermal management and software, and on every one of those, the accumulated advantage sits in China. The clock that took Korea thirty-five years is not running at the same speed. 3 — What actually broke Performance stopped being expensive, and nobody told the marketing department Here is the single fact that reorganises everything else. In 2010 a lithium-ion battery pack cost somewhere around $1,100 to $1,200 per kilowatt-hour. In 2025 the global volume-weighted average was $108. In China it was $84, with US packs running about 44% higher and European packs about 56% higher than that. Lithium-iron-phosphate chemistry, which China dominates and which requires no cobalt, reached $81 per kilowatt-hour at pack level in 2025 against $128 for nickel-manganese-cobalt. It is less energy-dense, which for a mass-market car has turned out not to matter nearly as much as being cheap.

Lithium-ion battery pack price, volume-weighted average ($/kWh)

BloombergNEF

2010

~$1,150

2019

$156

2023

$139

2024

$115

2025 (global)

$108

2025 (China)

$84

BNEF's own releases quote the 2010 baseline as both "above $1,100" and "above $1,200" in different years; treat it as a range. The China figure fell 13% in 2025, the sharpest regional decline, widening rather than closing the gap with Europe and North America.

Cost is only half of it. The other half is that China does not merely assemble these cars: it owns the inputs. Roughly 80% of global battery cell output and 85% of capacity sits in China, alongside 85–90% of cathode material, over 90% of anode material, 91% of rare-earth refining and 94% of the world's neodymium magnet production. CATL and BYD alone account for over 55% of every EV battery sold on the planet. When Europe builds an electric car, it is buying most of the value from the people it is competing with. BYD is the structural extreme. It was founded in 1995 as a battery company supplying Motorola and Nokia, and only bought its way into cars in 2003. It makes its own cells, its own IGBT semiconductors, its own motors and, after concluding that shipping was a bottleneck, its own fleet of ocean-going car carriers. When UBS stripped down a BYD Seal in 2023, it found roughly 75% of the components were made in-house, double the global average, and a cost base about 25% below Western rivals and more than 30% below the Volkswagen ID.3. Legacy manufacturers typically buy in 60–80% of a vehicle's value from suppliers; several of them actively divested their component arms in the 1990s. Speed compounds it. Chinese manufacturers develop a new vehicle in roughly 18 to 24 months against 45 to 60 for legacy mass-market groups, a figure independently estimated in the same range by McKinsey, AlixPartners, Oliver Wyman and a Reuters investigation. Reuters also found the average Chinese-brand model on sale was 1.6 years old; for foreign brands, 5.4. A NECESSARY CORRECTION TO THE POPULAR STORY It is not all subsidies. The most rigorous bottom-up study of the question (by the Rhodium Group, February 2026) puts BYD's per-vehicle cost advantage over Tesla at about $4,700, roughly 15%, of which state subsidies explain around $292. Fourteen hundred of the fifteen hundred dollars, in other words, is vertical integration, scale and low overheads. This matters because "they only win because Beijing pays for it" is a story that lets incumbents avoid changing anything. Tariffs can offset a subsidy. They cannot offset a better cost structure. Which brings us to the 1,400 horsepower question A Xiaomi SU7 Ultra makes roughly 1,526 horsepower and costs about 529,900 yuan, around $73,000. That is approximately $48 per horsepower. A Porsche 911 Turbo S makes 640 horsepower for about $230,000, or roughly $360 per horsepower. Per unit of performance, the Chinese car is seven and a half times cheaper, not marginally so.

Cost per horsepower, selected performance cars

Manufacturer prices, author's calculation

Xiaomi SU7 Ultra
1,526 hp / ~$73k

$48

Zeekr 001 FR
1,247 hp / ~$105k

$84

Yangwang U9
1,287 hp / ~$233k

$181

Porsche Taycan Turbo GT
1,019 hp / ~$231k

$227

Porsche 911 Turbo S
640 hp / ~$230k

$360

Prices are approximate domestic-market figures and are not adjusted for tax, tariff or specification. The ratios, not the absolute values, are the point.

!Xiaomi SU7 Ultra → The Xiaomi SU7 Ultra: around 1,500 horsepower from a company that, five years ago, made phones and rice cookers. Ford's chief executive imported one to Chicago and told a podcast: "I've been driving it for six months now, and I don't want to give it up." (Image: Motor1 / InsideEVs) The instinct is to argue about the numbers: that a Nürburgring time set by a stripped prototype is not a production time (correct: the SU7 Ultra has three different lap times attached to three different states of tune), or that Yangwang's claimed 496 km/h was a one-directional run that would not satisfy Guinness (also correct). But arguing the asterisks concedes the argument. If your defence of a €230,000 sports car requires litigating whether the €73,000 car's lap record was set on the correct kind of run, the performance gap has already closed to within the margin of press-release integrity. Straight-line speed is over as a differentiator. An electric motor makes maximum torque at zero rpm; adding another one costs a few thousand dollars. Acceleration was expensive for a hundred years because it required combustion engineering that almost nobody could do well. It is now a purchasing decision. Any brand whose meaning rests on being quick is holding an asset that has been marked down to roughly nothing. 4 — The numbers Europe is where it is happening. Australia is where it has happened. In the second quarter of 2026, Chinese brands took a record 10.7% of new-car sales across Western Europe's eighteen markets: 352,098 units. It was the first quarter in history that Chinese brands outsold Japanese ones. A year earlier the figure was 5.7%. In 2016, Chinese brands plus Tesla combined accounted for 0.1% of the market; in Q2 2026 that same "new entrant" group was 13.3%.

Chinese brands' share of new-car sales, Western Europe (18 markets)

Schmidt Automotive Research

2016 (incl. Tesla)

0.1%

Q2 2025

5.7%

Q1 2026

8.7%

Q2 2026

10.7%

Schmidt cautions that the Q2 figure may be flattered by importers front-loading registrations ahead of the July 2026 GSR-2 type-approval change, a pattern seen at the last changeover. Q3 will be the honest test.

Where is that share coming from? Growth isn't the source; the incumbents are.

Selected brand share, Western Europe, Q2 2026 vs Q2 2025

Schmidt Automotive Research

Volkswagen

10.2%

Q2 2025

11.3%

BYD

2.8%

Tesla

2.6%

Chery

2.3%

Ford

<3.0%

Nissan

1.6%

Chinese brands Tesla European incumbent Declining incumbent

Ford held roughly 9% of the European market in 2009. BYD, Chery and Tesla each now outsell Nissan. European brands collectively fell to 65.1% of the market in H1 2026, below two-thirds for the first time.

Australia is the same film, further into the running time, because Australia has no domestic car industry to protect, drives on the right-hand side that Chinese exporters already build for, and has just introduced fuel-efficiency rules that structurally reward exactly the companies arriving.

25.8% Chinese brands' share of the Australian market, up from 9.0% four years ago
54% Share of Australian small-SUV sales held by Chinese brands
39.6% Of all vehicles delivered in Australia in June 2026 were built in China, including Teslas and Polestars
~120 Chinese-brand models expected on sale in Australia in 2027, up from roughly 72 this year

The Australian first-half table is the clearest picture anywhere of a market reallocating rather than growing. Total volume was essentially flat (down 0.3%), which means every unit gained by a challenger was taken from someone. | Brand | H1 2026 sales | Change YoY | | |---|---|---|---| | Toyota | 95,141 | −21% | Losing | | BYD | 52,335 | +124% | Gaining | | Chery | 24,964 | +77% | Gaining | | Nissan | 13,854 | −33% | Losing | | Geely | 10,970 | Sharply up | Gaining | | Mazda | — | −23% | Losing | | Subaru | — | −37% | Losing | → Total market 606,793, −0.3%. VFACTS data; Geely's precise year-on-year percentage varies between sources and is reported here qualitatively. One number in that table deserves particular attention: Mazda incurred the largest financial liability under Australia's new efficiency standard in its first performance period, at −$25.4 million. BYD earned the most credits, around 6.28 million units of them. The regulatory environment designed to decarbonise the fleet functions, in practice, as a transfer from companies with combustion line-ups to companies without them. 5 — Adelaide Australia already lost the brands it loved, and China had nothing to do with it There is a reason Australia fell faster than Europe: not that Chinese cars are better here, but that Australia already ran this experiment, a decade early, on itself. For most of the postwar period Australia had what may have been the most tribal car market in the developed world. Roughly half of every car sold in the 1950s was a Holden. The rivalry with Ford was not a marketing construct. It was a genuine social division, red against blue, conducted annually at Bathurst and understood by people who had never bought either. Holden's veteran Mark Skaife put the taxonomy plainly: "Red vs Blue, Ford vs Holden, Collingwood vs Carlton, Labor vs Liberal." What made it work was proximity. The Commodore and the Falcon were designed in Australia, built in Australia by Australians, and raced at Bathurst in a form you could plausibly buy at a dealership. The badge on the boot lid was a claim about where you were from and who made your car, not an abstraction about a company headquartered in another hemisphere. Brand loyalty had a physical substrate: a factory in Elizabeth, another in Broadmeadows, and the people who worked in them. Then it went; for reasons that had nothing whatsoever to do with China. Timeline: the end of Australian car manufacturing 1992 / 2008 Nissan, then Mitsubishi, end Australian production. The first cracks, largely unmourned. 2013 Canberra declines further subsidies. Holden announces it will stop manufacturing. A high dollar, high wages, a small domestic market and closed Asian export markets have made the arithmetic impossible. 7 Oct 2016 The last Falcon comes down the line at Broadmeadows, an XR6, ending more than ninety years of Ford manufacturing in Australia. Around 600 jobs go. It falls on qualifying day at the Bathurst 1000. Oct 2017 Toyota closes Altona. The last Australian-built Camry. 20 Oct 2017 The last Commodore leaves Elizabeth, ending 69 years of Australian car-making. At its peak in 2003–05 the plant built 780 cars a day; in its final year, 175. Up to 950 people finish that day; 800 had already gone. 17 Feb 2020 General Motors retires the Holden badge altogether. Prime Minister Scott Morrison: "I am angry... Australian taxpayers put millions into this multinational company. They let the brand just wither away on their watch." !Workers at Holden's Elizabeth plant on the final day of production, October 2017 → Elizabeth, South Australia, October 2017. Sixty-nine years of Australian car manufacturing finished on a Friday afternoon. (Image: ABC News) Then GM tried to keep the badge without the car This is the part that matters most, because it is the Cadillac Cimarron all over again: same mistake, different hemisphere, thirty-six years later, and this time with an audience that had every reason to take it personally. Having closed Elizabeth, General Motors kept the Commodore name and applied it to an imported Opel Insignia: front-wheel drive, built in Germany, available with a four-cylinder or a V6, and for the first time in forty years, no V8 at all. More than three million Commodores had been sold since 1978. Australians looked at this one and declined. Sales fell over 60% in 2018, then another 37% in 2019 to 5,417 cars. GM axed it in December 2019, two years after launch, and reportedly paid penalties to the German factory for not taking its allocation. The collateral damage went further than one model. Industry surveys tracked the number of people intending to buy a Holden within the next year falling from 8% to 4% almost overnight when the factory shut, buyers concluding, not unreasonably, that a company that had stopped making cars here had stopped being theirs. Holden then declined to renew franchise agreements with some of its longest-standing dealers, who promptly installed Nissan, Kia and Hyundai signage in the same showrooms. Every one of those brands went on to outsell Holden. By 2019 the former number-one brand in the country held 4.1% of the market and tenth place. Australians might carry the flag with pride, or even have it tattooed on their body, but we know a good deal when we see one. — Joshua Dowling, Sydney Morning Herald, December 2019 That sentence is the whole argument of this essay, written seven years before the Chinese wave arrived, by someone watching a different fire. Which is why Australia had no defences left By the time BYD landed in 2022, Australia had become the most brand-agnostic developed car market on earth, and it had got there entirely without Chinese help. Every car on sale was an import. No badge had a local claim on anyone's loyalty: no factory, no jobs, no plausible line about supporting Australian workers. Ford still sold Rangers and Mustangs, but the Falcon was a memory. Holden was gone outright. The Supercars grid, which had once been a direct extension of the showroom, had become, in driver Nick Percat's flat assessment, "hand-made race cars... other than the body panels, they're nothing like a road car anymore." So when a Chinese manufacturer arrived with more equipment at a lower price, the emotional switching cost of moving from a Toyota to a BYD was approximately zero. Not because Australians are unsentimental (they had been extraordinarily sentimental, for seventy years), but because the objects of the sentiment had already been taken away and replaced with imports, by the very companies that had earned the loyalty in the first place. Which makes Australia less a preview of Europe's future than a controlled experiment on what Europe still has and is at risk of spending. Europe retains the substrate: Wolfsburg, Zuffenhausen, Mirafiori, Gothenburg, Sochaux. Factories, jobs, national identification, the sense that these companies are in some meaningful way ours. That is what the tariff arguments and the localisation fights are actually about, underneath the trade law: not protecting margin, but protecting the physical basis on which a badge can still make a claim on somebody. Australia demonstrates the sequence: the manufacturing goes for sound economic reasons, the brand attempts to survive as pure marketing, buyers detect the hollowness immediately, and then a competitor arrives to find a market with nothing to defend. The Chinese did not dismantle Australian car loyalty; they inherited a market where it had already been dismantled from the inside, and bought it cheaply. 6 — The great sorting Two economies, and the brands trapped between them The question "do people still care about car brands?" has no single answer, because there is no longer a single car market. There are two, and they are separating fast. The first is the appliance economy. Four wheels, a family, a school run, a price. This is most of the market by volume, and it always has been. The difference is that buyers now have the information to act on it. They can compare specification, warranty, range and monthly payment on a phone before they ever see a dealer. In this economy, the badge functioned mainly as a proxy: a shorthand for "this will probably not break, and someone will fix it if it does." When you can verify those things directly, the proxy loses value. And a Chinese manufacturer can deliver more equipment, more technology and more electrification for less money, which is precisely the offer that wins here. In the appliance economy, brand is not dying so much as being priced correctly, and the correct price is low. The second is the identity economy. Here the car is not a solution to a transport problem; it is a statement about the person driving it. Mercedes' design chief Gorden Wagener puts the distinction more bluntly than any analyst: "A Mercedes should not be like a fridge — something you need... luxury is something you want, not what you need. We don't build appliances on wheels." That is not marketing fluff, it is a segmentation strategy. In this economy the badge is the product, and its price is whatever meaning it carries. Over 90% of European luxury buyers say they value brand heritage. Seventy-one percent say they are unlikely to consider a Chinese car. — McKinsey, cited by Reuters Breakingviews, November 2025 That statistic is the single strongest piece of evidence that brand equity remains a real, monetisable asset, and also the most dangerous thing an incumbent could read, because a 71% refusal rate is a starting position, not a moat. In 1989, the share of BMW owners who would have considered a Japanese luxury sedan was surely higher than 29%, right up until it wasn't. The genuine casualty of this sorting is neither the cheap car nor the exceptional one. It is everything in the middle: the mainstream brand that charges a premium over the value players on the strength of reputation, without offering anything the identity economy would pay for. Volkswagen at 10.2% and falling. Ford below 3% in a market where it held 9% in 2009. Nissan at 1.6%, now outsold in Europe by BYD, Tesla, MG and Chery. These are brands discovering that the middle of the ladder was the rung nobody was standing on for emotional reasons, not brands being beaten on product. 7 — Stuttgart How Porsche competes with 1,400 horsepower: by not competing with 1,400 horsepower Porsche is having a genuinely terrible time, and it is important to be accurate about why, because the reasons are mostly not the ones in the headline. 14.1% Porsche operating margin, FY2024 1.1% Porsche operating margin, FY2025 (profit fell 92.7% to €0.41bn) −55% Porsche's China deliveries, 2022 peak to 2025 (93,286 → 41,938) −63% Share price versus its May 2023 high of €120.80 Three guidance cuts in 2025. Demotion from the DAX to the MDAX in September of that year. Roughly 9,000 job reductions programmed through to 2035, about one position in five. A dealer network in China contracting from around 150 outlets towards a target of 80. And in September 2025, a strategic reversal: the new SUV positioned above the Cayenne, previously planned as an EV, will now launch with combustion and plug-in hybrid power, at a one-off cost of up to €1.8 billion and total extraordinary charges around €3.1 billion. Volkswagen Group absorbed roughly €5.1 billion in knock-on impairment. But disentangle the causes. US tariffs cost roughly €700 million in 2025; Porsche builds nothing in America and North America is now its largest market. The China collapse is substantially a demand-side story about a property downturn and newly discreet wealth, not solely a competitive one: Mercedes fell 27% in China in Q3 2025, BMW 11% over nine months, Ferrari 13%. And Porsche's own software problems were inherited: Volkswagen's CARIAD division lost more than €6.9 billion between 2022 and 2024 and delayed the electric Macan by years. Even the alarming Australian number has an innocent explanation. Porsche Australia's June deliveries fell 33% to 342 cars, driven by the Macan collapsing 83% from 241 units to 41 as it transitioned to an EV-only line-up. In the same month, Cayenne Coupe sales rose 27.7% and Cayenne Wagon 44.8%. Porsche Australia's chief executive said flatly: "this is not a Porsche problem, this is an industry situation." On the evidence, he is right. !Porsche 911 on a road → The 911 retains roughly 60–78% of its value after three years depending on the methodology, and 92% after five years in US data, against an all-vehicle average of 58%. Depreciation is brand equity you can measure in cash. (Image: Porsche Newsroom) So what is left to defend? Not speed. Porsche cannot win a horsepower war against a company that will sell 1,500 of them for $73,000, and the strategically literate response is to stop entering that war. What survives commoditisation is everything that cannot be specified on a comparison table: Residual value. This is the least romantic and most persuasive argument for brand. A 911 retains roughly 60% of its value after three years on conservative UK figures, and one 2026 analysis ranked it the single best value-retaining car in Britain at around 78%. In US data it depreciates 7.8% over five years against an all-vehicle average of 41.5%. That gap is desire, expressed as money, years after the sale, not engineering. Driving as an experience rather than an outcome. Ferrari's global marketing director, asked directly about Chinese rivals, gave the most honest answer anyone in the industry has offered: "We think they are making incredible progress in terms of performance. I think they are still a little behind in terms of driving emotion. Developing a car which drives fast on the straight is not difficult. Developing a car which is incredibly precise when entering a curve... this is what we try to do." Then the knife: "They do develop cars which are kind of consumable. Every month a new car comes up, and your previous car becomes old." Scarcity, enforced deliberately. Ferrari is the proof that the identity economy is not merely defensible but extraordinarily profitable. In 2025 it made €7.15 billion in revenue at a 29.5% operating margin and a 38.8% EBITDA margin, on 13,640 cars, essentially flat against 2024's 13,752, and up from just 7,255 in 2014. Its order book runs to the end of 2027. It achieves this while China accounts for only 7% of revenue, which is to say it has structurally opted out of the market that is destroying everyone else's numbers. What Ferrari sells is not transportation, or even performance, but the fact that you cannot simply buy one. That said, Ferrari also demonstrates the limits. When it revealed its first EV, the Luce, unveiled in Rome in May 2026 at over €500,000, the stock fell 8.4% in Milan, having already dropped 16% the previous October on underwhelming long-range guidance. By late July, orders had reportedly hit the roughly 500-unit target, helped by Chinese demand. Even the most insulated brand in the industry gets marked down when the market suspects its meaning does not transfer to the new technology. THE COUNTER-ARGUMENT WORTH TAKING SERIOUSLY The Chinese are not staying in the value segment. BYD's Denza launched in Europe at the Palais Garnier and prices the Z9GT at €115,000, against under $50,000 at home, a 2.3× export markup, and above an equivalent Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo. The Denza Z, aimed squarely at the 911, launched at Goodwood at around £142,900. Yangwang is coming for Bentley. Zeekr is coming for Range Rover. And in China itself, the moat has already been breached: Huawei's Maextro S800 has become the country's best-selling car above $100,000, outselling the Porsche Panamera and BMW 7 Series combined. The German premium brands are not insulated in China. The open question (genuinely open, because it has not happened yet) is whether the Western insulation survives once Denza and Yangwang arrive at scale with service networks and a decade of track record behind them. 8 — Gothenburg The Volvo paradox: a Chinese-owned brand that stayed Swedish If the question is whether Chinese ownership destroys a European brand's meaning, the experiment has already been run, and the answer is no, with conditions. Ford sold Volvo Cars to Geely for $1.8 billion in March 2010, an act widely reported at the time as the end of Volvo as anyone understood it. What followed was the most successful period in the company's history. In 2011, its first full year under Geely, Volvo sold 449,255 cars on revenue of SEK 126 billion with SEK 1.6 billion of operating profit. By 2019 it sold 705,452 cars, the first time above 700,000 in a ninety-year history, on SEK 274 billion of revenue and SEK 14.3 billion of operating profit. In October 2021 it listed in Stockholm at around $18 billion and jumped 22% on debut. Volvo's own account names the mechanism explicitly. The 2010 arrangement was built on "technical independence, a global manufacturing footprint, a strengthened brand identity and arms-length governance by Geely." Li Shufu bought a brand and then, crucially, did not touch it. Håkan Samuelsson's summary: "we completely renewed our product portfolio, established a global presence, almost doubled our sales and went from break-even to profitable." !Volvo EX30 → The Volvo EX30: designed in Sweden, initially built in China, and since April 2025 also built in Ghent, Belgium, after a €200 million investment prompted directly by EU tariffs that apply to the Geely group at 28.8%. (Image: WIRED) The comparison case is instructive. MG, under SAIC, kept the octagon and discarded almost everything else: the badge survives as a value proposition, competently executed and emotionally hollow. Volvo kept the meaning. The difference was whether the owner understood that the meaning was the asset, not the nationality of ownership. Which is why the current chapter matters. Volvo is struggling: it abandoned its 2030 all-electric pledge in September 2024, took a roughly $1 billion impairment in 2025, and brought Samuelsson back as chief executive in April 2025 on a two-year term after Jim Rowan's departure. And Li Shufu has begun publicly arguing for the opposite of the original doctrine: deeper integration with Geely and Polestar, more shared China-based R&D, to avoid what he called self-destructive obsolescence. Fifteen years of deliberate arm's-length separation is being unwound under financial pressure. That is the real test, and it is running right now. Volvo's Swedishness was never a fact about its cap table; it was a discipline about what the owner refrained from doing. Discipline is cheap when profits are good. Set Volvo against Holden and the variable isolates cleanly. Both were national brands owned by a foreign parent. One owner treated the meaning as the asset and left it alone, and the brand grew from 449,000 cars to 705,000. The other treated the meaning as a balance-sheet item it could keep while disposing of everything underneath it, and destroyed a seventy-year-old institution in three years. Neither outcome had anything to do with the nationality of the owner; both had everything to do with whether the owner understood what they had bought. A brand is not where a car is assembled, or who owns the equity, but whether anyone can tell the difference when they drive it. 9 — The reckoning Who survives, and on what basis Sorting the field by what each type of brand actually owns, rather than by nationality or size: | Category | What it actually owns | Exposure | Odds | |---|---|---|---| | Ultra-luxury
Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, Bentley | Deliberate scarcity, waiting lists, an order book that is itself the product. Ferrari caps volume on purpose. | China demand weakness; whether meaning transfers to EVs | Defensible | | Performance icons
Porsche 911, AMG, M | Residual values, motorsport lineage, chassis feel, the fact that a 911 is a decision rather than a purchase. | Must stop competing on horsepower; China already lost | Conditional | | Meaning-led premium
Volvo, Land Rover, Mini | A specific value proposition (safety, capability, character) that a spec sheet cannot express. | Owner discipline; dilution under margin pressure | Conditional | | Volume mainstream
VW, Ford, Nissan, Mazda | Reputation as a proxy for reliability: the exact function buyers can now verify without it. | Undercut from below, no emotional premium above | Existential | | Value incumbents
Dacia, Suzuki, base Kia | Cost discipline and distribution: competing on the axis Chinese OEMs are strongest on. | Direct head-to-head, with a worse cost base | Existential | | Chinese challengers
BYD, Chery, Geely, MG | Cost structure, speed, supply chain. Everything except time. | Residuals, service networks, no heritage to draw on | Ascending | The Chinese challengers' weakness is worth stating precisely, because it is routinely overstated and routinely understated in the same conversation. In Australia, the depreciation penalty is real: the BYD Atto 3 lost 35.8% in just over a year and the Chery Tiggo 7 Pro 42.0%, against MG ZS retaining 57–68% over four years versus 72–78% for a Mazda CX-3. But in the UK, cap hpi's 2026 data has the MG 5 among the strongest performers on three-year residuals, while the value stress sits in premium EVs: the Genesis G80, Lexus RZ, BMW i5, Jaguar I-Pace. A Tesla Model Y lost 48.9% since 2022. So the honest formulation is not "Chinese cars depreciate badly." It is "cars without an established track record depreciate badly, and MG (which has been in these markets longest) no longer has that problem." Which tells you exactly what the deficit is. It is not quality. It is time. And time is the one input BYD cannot vertically integrate. Conclusion The badge has to be paid for again Car brands are not dead. Unearned car brands are dead, and most brands have been coasting on unearned equity for about thirty years. The century-long bargain was that a badge stood as security for things a buyer could not check: whether the engine would last, whether the car would be safe, whether it would be worth anything in five years, whether the neighbours would read it correctly. Sloan monetised the last of those and the industry lived off the arrangement for four generations. What has happened is not that Chinese manufacturers built better cars, but that they, along with the internet and the electric drivetrain, dismantled the information asymmetry the whole arrangement rested on. When a buyer can verify range, warranty, equipment and price in ten minutes on a phone, and when 1,500 horsepower costs $73,000, the badge is no longer collateral. It is just a claim, and it now has to be true. Which brings this back to where most people actually live. If you need four wheels to move a family from A to B, you are being served better than at any point in automotive history, by companies that did not exist in your consciousness five years ago, and you are right not to pay a premium for a logo that no longer certifies anything. That is the correct pricing of a service, not the death of taste. And if you chose a Volvo because something about the way it holds itself matches something about the way you would like to hold yourself. That is not sentimentality either, but the last remaining thing a car brand can sell that cannot be copied by a company with better batteries: a specific, coherent point of view about how to move through the world, executed consistently enough that other people recognise it. Volvo's Swedishness survived a Chinese takeover because Geely understood it was buying a meaning, not a factory. Whether it survives Volvo's own cost-cutting is a genuinely open question. Australia is the cautionary version of that sentence, because Australia has already been through it and the culprit was domestic. Nobody took the Falcon and the Commodore away from Australians except the companies that made them. The badges were spent: first on a factory closure that was probably unavoidable, then on an imported saloon wearing a name it had not earned, which was entirely avoidable. What arrived from China four years later did not conquer a loyal market. It walked into an empty one. The comforting version of this story is that Europe's heritage brands have a moat and China has none. The real version is that 71% of European luxury buyers said they would not consider a Chinese car: a number that describes a lead, not a wall, and one that reads uncomfortably like what BMW's marketing chief said about Lexus in October 1989, three weeks before Lexus outsold him. Brands were never about the metal. They were about being the only people who could make the metal work. That job is finished. From here, a badge is worth exactly what it means to the person looking at it — and meaning, unlike horsepower, was never something you could buy by the kilowatt-hour.

Sources & notes European market data: Schmidt Automotive Research (Q1/Q2 2026 studies), covering 18 Western European markets. Volvo is classified as European despite Geely ownership. Australian market data: FCAI/VFACTS June and July 2026 releases; Electric Vehicle Council; Pitcher Partners, "Flooding the zone" (2 August 2026); NVES Regulator 2025 performance period results. Battery and cost data: BloombergNEF Battery Price Survey 2024/2025; IEA Global EV Outlook 2025; SNE Research; UBS BYD Seal teardown (2023); Rhodium Group, "Why are Chinese EVs so cheap?" (February 2026). Porsche and Ferrari: Porsche AG newsroom and annual results; Volkswagen Group ad-hoc disclosures; Ferrari FY2025 results (10 February 2026); Reuters; Interbrand Best Global Brands 2025. Consumer research: McKinsey via Reuters Breakingviews (2 November 2025); cap hpi via Motor Trader (May/June 2026); Redbook/CarsGuide via Australian analyses; What Car?, iSeeCars. Australian manufacturing collapse: ABC News and Reuters coverage of the Ford Broadmeadows (October 2016), Toyota Altona and Holden Elizabeth (October 2017) closures; ABC and Reuters on GM's retirement of the Holden brand, February 2020; GoAuto and the Sydney Morning Herald (Joshua Dowling, December 2019) on the ZB Commodore's failure; The Age on the sponsorship and Supercars fallout. History: Journal of Economic History; Henry Ford, My Life and Work (1922); The Henry Ford; Model T Ford Club of America; Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland on the 1981 VERs; contemporaneous LA Times, TIME and Christian Science Monitor reporting on the Lexus and Infiniti launches. Where this piece is deliberately cautious The June 2026 BYD–Toyota near-miss is reported alongside July's reversal, because reporting one without the other would misrepresent the trend. Chinese depreciation is treated as a track-record problem rather than a national one, because UK data currently contradicts the simpler claim. Porsche's Australian and Chinese declines are separated into transition, demand and competition effects rather than attributed wholesale to Chinese rivals. Cost-per-horsepower figures are the author's arithmetic on manufacturer prices, unadjusted for tax and tariff. The ratio is the argument, not the absolute number. The 71% figure is widely quoted as applying to European luxury buyers. It is traced here to its primary source — a McKinsey survey of just over 150 luxury-car buyers worldwide — and reported with the sample size and the accompanying loyalty figures, which cut the other way.

References European market data Note: Schmidt Automotive Research covers 18 Western European markets. Volvo is classified as European despite Geely ownership. Schmidt Automotive Research, "Chinese OEMs surpass Japanese brands for the first time" (22 July 2026) Schmidt Automotive Research, "New kids on the block" (22 July 2026) Schmidt Automotive Research, "Chinese OEMs race towards double digit market share" (17 June 2026) Schmidt Automotive Research, "BYD now Western Europe's largest Chinese brand" (28 July 2026) South China Morning Post, "Europe's new EV power struggle" (4 August 2026) Automotive News Europe, "Which legacy automakers are losing ground?" (3 August 2026) Reuters, "China's carmakers expand their presence in Europe" (2 June 2026) Reuters, "BYD aims to double European sales network by end-2026" (17 November 2025) European Commission, countervailing duties on Chinese BEV imports (October 2024) Australian market data FCAI, "New vehicle market records strongest month ever" (3 July 2026) FCAI, "EV sales remain strong during record-best July" (5 August 2026) Pitcher Partners, "Flooding the zone: The rise of Chinese vehicle brands in Australia" (2 August 2026) carsales, "VFACTS June 2026: BYD erases gap to Toyota" carsales, "How the new car market is shifting six months into 2026" CarExpert, "VFACTS July 2026" (5 August 2026) GoAuto, "VFACTS: New record set in June" (6 July 2026) Australian Financial Review, "BYD almost topples Toyota as EV sales soar" (3 July 2026) NVES Regulator, 2025 performance period results ABC News, "Efficiency standard results: Mazda, Nissan penalties" (18 February 2026) ABC News, "How China won the car wars with cheap EVs" (24 July 2026) Drive, "Porsche acknowledges electric Macan's role in Australian sales downturn" The end of Australian car manufacturing ABC News, "Ford closes its Australian factories after more than 90 years" (7 October 2016) Reuters, "Australian car manufacturing ends as GM Holden closes plant" (20 October 2017) ABC News, "Last vehicle rolls off production line" (20 October 2017) ABC News, "Final cars roll off Elizabeth production line as workers say farewell" BBC News, "Australian carmaking runs out of road" (19 October 2017) ABC News, "Holden car brand axed across Australia and New Zealand" (17 February 2020) Reuters, "Holden brand retirement stuns Australian motor sport" (18 February 2020) ABC News, "What does the end of the Ford-Holden rivalry mean for Supercars?" — source of the Skaife and Percat quotes ABC News, "Holden vs Ford rivalry delivered a 'death' blow at the Adelaide 500" The Age, "Holden exit spells trouble for Supercars, State of Origin and Collingwood" (17 February 2020) GoAuto, "Holden Commodore axed" (10 December 2019) Sydney Morning Herald, Joshua Dowling, "Why the Holden Commodore ran out of road" (14 December 2019) news.com.au, "Commodore's Catch-22: Why sales dropped 60 per cent in a year" (20 January 2019) Batteries, supply chain and cost structure BloombergNEF, battery pack prices fall to $115/kWh (December 2024) BloombergNEF, battery pack prices fall to $108/kWh (December 2025) IEA, Global EV Outlook 2025: Electric vehicle batteries IEA, Rare Earth Elements (2025) SNE Research, global EV battery market share (September 2025) UBS, BYD Seal teardown (September 2023) Rhodium Group, "Why are Chinese EVs so cheap?" (February 2026) Reuters investigation, "How China's new auto giants left GM, VW and Tesla in the dust" (3 July 2025) Wall Street Journal, "What Scared Ford's CEO in China" (14 September 2024) Porsche, Ferrari and brand value Porsche Newsroom, "Porsche AG sets final steps in the realignment of its product strategy" (19 September 2025) Porsche Newsroom, Annual Press Conference 2026 — FY2025 results Porsche Newsroom, Q3 2025 financial figures (24 October 2025) Ferrari N.V., 2025 full year and fourth quarter results (10 February 2026) Interbrand, Best Global Brands 2025, and the accompanying release — source of the Manfredi Ricca quote Automotive News, "Tesla's value slumps sharply as BYD makes top 100 debut" (15 October 2025) Consumer research McKinsey, "Shifting gears: What buyers are saying about the luxury-car experience" (28 March 2025) — the primary source of the 71%, 37% and 46% figures Reuters Breakingviews, "Swanky cars drive new front in China's EU assault" (2 November 2025) Residual value figures: cap hpi via Motor Trader (May and June 2026 monthly analyses); Redbook and CarsGuide data via Australian depreciation analyses; What Car? and iSeeCars for the Porsche 911 comparisons. History Journal of Economic History, "The Model T" The Henry Ford, "Ford's Model T"; Britannica, Model T Henry Ford, My Life and Work (1922) — the primary source of the black paint quote Model T Ford Club of America, paint encyclopedia; Products Finishing, on why black was actually chosen Law and Social Inquiry, "Credit Cars"; Harvard Business School, on GMAC and instalment credit Cadillac Cimarron; Pitta & Katsanis, "Understanding brand equity for successful brand extension" Christian Science Monitor, on the voluntary export restraints (6 July 1984) and on the Acura launch (14 March 1986) LA Times, on Lexus outselling BMW and BMW's dismissal of the threat (both 21 October 1989) TIME, "Phantom Car, Faint Sales" (22 January 1990) MotorTrend, 1990 Lexus LS400 retrospective; Car and Driver, revisiting the original LS400 Hyundai Excel; Kevin Lane Keller, "Conceptualizing, Measuring and Managing Customer-Based Brand Equity" Volvo and Geely Volvo Cars, ten years under Geely ownership — source of the "arms-length governance" formulation and the Samuelsson quote Volvo Cars, 2021 full-year results Reuters, on Volvo Cars' Stockholm listing (29 October 2021)

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Así es como lo veríamos en nuestra pantalla:"}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.image","image":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreibjtvjomnrzr5ijupec2jre6vv7lntz3wooxzp333peu74g5cb5fe"},"size":50852,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/webp"},"aspectRatio":{"width":491,"height":793}}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.text","facets":[{"index":{"byteEnd":78,"byteStart":77},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#footnote","footnoteId":"019eb2a5-9801-7ffa-bda4-b9e2db0cd40b","contentFacets":[{"index":{"byteEnd":9,"byteStart":0},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#bold"}]},{"index":{"byteEnd":76,"byteStart":18},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#italic"}]},{"index":{"byteEnd":99,"byteStart":78},"features":[{"uri":"https://substack.com/","$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#link"}]}],"contentPlaintext":"Substack. (s.f.). Plataforma para newsletters y publicaciones independientes. https://substack.com/"}]},{"index":{"byteEnd":142,"byteStart":141},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#footnote","footnoteId":"019eb2a9-9e14-7ffa-bda8-44a3118ff07d","contentFacets":[{"index":{"byteEnd":24,"byteStart":0},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#bold"}]},{"index":{"byteEnd":81,"byteStart":33},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#italic"}]},{"index":{"byteEnd":107,"byteStart":83},"features":[{"uri":"https://withpersona.com/","$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#link"}]}],"contentPlaintext":"Persona Identities, Inc. (s.f.). Persona: Identity verification and age assurance. https://withpersona.com/"}]},{"index":{"byteEnd":202,"byteStart":178},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#bold"}]}],"plaintext":"Este es el mensaje que apareció cuando quise entrar en la cuenta de Substack*. Para verificar mi edad, tendría que acceder a la app Persona*, una plataforma que procesaría mi información biométrica."}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.text","facets":[{"index":{"byteEnd":186,"byteStart":160},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#bold"}]},{"index":{"byteEnd":187,"byteStart":186},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#footnote","footnoteId":"019ea8fc-c82b-788e-a59c-819029c1c1cf","contentFacets":[{"index":{"byteEnd":21,"byteStart":0},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#bold"}]},{"index":{"byteEnd":49,"byteStart":30},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#italic"}]},{"index":{"byteEnd":173,"byteStart":118},"features":[{"uri":"https://www.esafety.gov.au/about-us/industry-regulation","$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#link"}]}],"contentPlaintext":"eSafety Commissioner. (s.f.). Industry regulation [Regulación de la industria]. Recuperado el 8 de junio de 2026, de https://www.esafety.gov.au/about-us/industry-regulation"}]}],"plaintext":"Previamente a hacer clic en el botón de \"Empieza\", hice lo que se debe hacer, ampliar la información que me ofrecen a través del enlace que me llevará a la Ley de Seguridad en Línea*, que es la que se aplica en Australia. Esa que tanto se aplaudió -sin conocerla- porque iba a limitar el acceso de los menores de 16 años a las redes sociales y otros contenidos."}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.text","plaintext":"El sitio web al que me lleva para conocer qué legislación avala esta solicitud de acceso a datos personales, es este:"}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.image","image":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreihnicpwq52dfgjr33pahtflbnop4c254lkbvgeqiimfrot5iei3da"},"size":186920,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/webp"},"aspectRatio":{"width":1922,"height":1082}}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.text","facets":[{"index":{"byteEnd":83,"byteStart":82},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#footnote","footnoteId":"019eb2ac-2b55-7ffa-bda9-74df6569b554","contentFacets":[{"index":{"byteEnd":11,"byteStart":0},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#bold"}]},{"index":{"byteEnd":46,"byteStart":20},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#italic"}]},{"index":{"byteEnd":72,"byteStart":48},"features":[{"uri":"https://www.deepl.com/es","$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#link"}]}],"contentPlaintext":"DeepL GmbH. (s.f.). DeepL: Traductor en línea. https://www.deepl.com/es"}]}],"plaintext":"Tras la traducción de la página completa utilizando la aplicación alemana DeepL* obtenemos la misma información pero en castellano:"}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.image","image":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreid7eqkhys7kmizphhcfkdrtepclvldskvuptijnuyusjv5sghz3wa"},"size":204426,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/webp"},"aspectRatio":{"width":1922,"height":1082}}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.text","facets":[{"index":{"byteEnd":35,"byteStart":8},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#bold"}]}],"plaintext":"Empiezo el proceso de verificación que, como podéis observar, requiere de la entrega de datos biométricos. "}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.text","plaintext":"Es interesante que el movimiento de la cara hacia la izquierda y hacia la derecha, mostrando ambos lados, permite la captura de la fisionomía de la oreja que, como la huella dactilar, son únicas y permanentes de cada persona. Así es lo que me contó una miembro de la Guardia Civil hablando sobre seguridad."}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.text","plaintext":"Del mismo modo, me pregunto si sería suficiente la calidad de la captura como para acceder también al iris del ojo; solo me lo pregunto."}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.image","image":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreic4nuphtes4u2inlkk53rnx7qvvqlrqxkvofsdrhwcenrearkitdu"},"size":35150,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/webp"},"aspectRatio":{"width":486,"height":673}}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.text","plaintext":"Como el dispositivo desde el que estoy no tiene cámara, la app me pide que acceda al QR o bien solicitar que me remitan al correo electrónico un enlace seguro."}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.image","image":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreibwoj7grk5ygrdq3g66ey26wcraxem3aa5xzgzg6wcey5ypcw3gmy"},"size":41600,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/webp"},"aspectRatio":{"width":473,"height":636}},"alignment":"lex:pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#textAlignCenter"},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.text","plaintext":"Tengo la opción de cambiar el país, quizás para ofrecer aún más datos personales. Sustituyo Australia por España, creyendo que eso les llevaría a renunciar a seguir verificándome, en la medida en la que no hay ninguna legislación que salvaguarde mis derechos en una supuesta obligación de identificación (inexistente también en España) para garantizar que tengo la edad apropiada para el acceso a la aplicación Substack."}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.image","image":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreidkho5etrnb6jgmphwwpyc2u7gpr75f3zc5xqmxczqm4v5ys3ckbq"},"size":12406,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/webp"},"aspectRatio":{"width":487,"height":361}}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.text","plaintext":"Pero no, eso no me libró de tener que seguir entregando mi identidad personal de carácter biométrico."}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.image","image":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreih3qefzgkjzpitv6uoyfomia2mpm5edv52miy5js3til2iktjjqhe"},"size":13510,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/webp"},"aspectRatio":{"width":488,"height":352}}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.text","plaintext":"De este modo, y antes de aportar mi correo electrónico, vuelvo a leer la continuidad de mensajes. "}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.image","image":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreiepmkfo566emuhbxgx6whn3o3wsuehmbmywq2kf435ssdmcjyedme"},"size":46726,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/webp"},"aspectRatio":{"width":478,"height":582}}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.text","facets":[{"index":{"byteEnd":55,"byteStart":54},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#footnote","footnoteId":"019ea915-fd6c-788e-a5a8-ce0091a91edf","contentPlaintext":""}]}],"plaintext":"Nuevamente accedo al enlace de Política de privacidad* de la app Persona para leerla:"}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.image","image":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreihzq5gfhppthykyii6zctrlovh2gpwysnlozffv7y2z5knamtqhpu"},"size":243868,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/webp"},"aspectRatio":{"width":1922,"height":1082}}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.text","plaintext":"Y aquí me quedo por ahora. Daré continuidad al artículo en unos días."}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.horizontalRule"}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.header","level":3,"plaintext":"Más sobre el mismo tema:"}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"uri":"at://did:plc:7utodphaa747debxspuwmxfu/site.standard.document/3ml7jm33cps2x","size":"medium","$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.standardSitePost"}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"src":"https://www.enriquedans.com/2026/06/el-problema-no-es-que-los-adolescentes-entren-es-que-la-maquina-exista.html","$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.website","title":"El problema no es que los adolescentes entren: es que la máquina exista","description":"El gobierno británico acaba de anunciar una prohibición de acceso a redes sociales para menores de 16 años que afectaría a servicios como TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, X o YouTube, mientras deja fuera herramientas de mensajería como WhatsApp o Signal. Añade, además, mecanismos de verificación de edad, restricciones por defecto para usuarios de 16 y 17 años, posibles limitaciones nocturnas y medidas contra funciones como el desplazamiento infinito o las recomendaciones algorítmicas. A primera vista, suena a decisión valiente. En realidad, es el tipo de medida perfecta para gobernantes que necesitan un titular: trata el sarpullido mientras deja intacta","previewImage":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreibdx5kg63facwsqm55zgemzn56mijna42kenodxepf5vkfrbip3vu"},"size":45305,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/png"}}}]}]},"coverImage":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreid7eqkhys7kmizphhcfkdrtepclvldskvuptijnuyusjv5sghz3wa"},"size":204426,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/webp"},"description":"De qué manera la verificación de edad en Australia requiere entregar ciertos datos personales, incluso de carácter biométrico, a una empresa ubicada en California EE.UU.).","publishedAt":"2026-06-15T15:43:22.854Z","theme":"$undefined","preferences":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:7utodphaa747debxspuwmxfu/site.standard.document/3modmsmwk5k2n","sort_date":"2026-06-15T15:43:22.854+00:00"}}] 4d:T4292,

13.1% EV* share of new-car sales, 2025 (up from 9.6%)
454k+ EVs on Australian roads*, end 2025
93% of EV owners can charge at home
70–85% of charging is done at home
1,310+ public DC fast-charge sites nationally
4.3m households with rooftop solar

includes PHEVs; source: Electric Vehicle Council, Jan 2026. _ 01 / The Cost Gap Bottom line up front For the ~93% of Australian EV owners who can charge at home, this isn't a fair fight. Home charging on a dedicated EV tariff costs roughly 4.5–8c/kWh (and near-zero with rooftop solar), versus 48–99c/kWh at a public DC fast charger. That 6–20x cost gap means the two models are mostly complementary, not competitive: home charging is the default that delivers ~70–85% of all energy, while public networks own the journeys home charging can't — road trips and the no-driveway minority. The real strategic contest is less "public vs home" and more who owns the EV customer: fuel majors and motoring clubs building charging networks, versus electricity retailers turning the home, and soon the car battery itself, into a managed grid asset. 6–20x
The cost gap between home charging and a public DC fast charger 02 / Head to Head The core comparison | Dimension | 🔌 Public charging networks | 🏠 Home charging (via energy retailers) | | ---------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Representative players | Tesla Supercharger, Chargefox, Evie, NRMA, bp pulse, Ampol AmpCharge, JOLT | AGL, Origin, EnergyAustralia, Amber, OVO, GloBird, Red Energy | | Energy price | ~48–99c/kWh DC fast (Tesla ~48c member; casual 59–75c; remote up to 99c). JOLT: first 7 kWh/day free | 4.5–8c/kWh on dedicated EV windows; ~0c with solar; ~29–32c if on a standard flat rate | | Speed | 25–350+ kW DC → 10–60 min | 2–7 kW (single-phase) to 22 kW (3-phase) → overnight "wake up full" | | Upfront cost to driver | None (pay-per-use); optional membership ($9.99/mo Tesla non-owner; club fees) | Wallbox + install ~$1,000–2,500; needs off-street parking + suitable switchboard | | Convenience | Essential for travel/top-ups, but ~5–13% can be offline; queues at peak | Zero detour, plug in at home; the default for ~70–85% of energy delivered | | Best-fit use cases | Long-distance/road trips; renters & apartment dwellers; fleets; emergency top-up | Daily commuting; overnight; solar self-consumption; anyone with a driveway | | Revenue model | Pay-per-kWh + subscriptions/idle fees; forecourt convenience; ads (JOLT); club loyalty | Electricity margin + customer retention; VPP/demand response; future V2G value-stacking | | Grid/smart angle | Site-level load management; some ToU pricing; battery-buffered remote sites | Smart scheduling, "solar soak", VPP, emerging V2G — turns the EV into a grid/home asset | | Ownership backdrop | Fuel majors (Ampol, bp), motoring clubs (Chargefox, NRMA), Tesla, infra investors (Evie) | Big-3 gentailers (AGL, Origin, EnergyAustralia) + tech-led challengers (Amber, OVO, GloBird) | 03 / Market context Why the structure looks this way Adoption is broadening, not exploding. Combined EVs hit 13.1% of new-car sales in 2025 (up from 9.6% in 2024), with a December 2025 monthly peak of 16.7%. But the growth is increasingly PHEV-led (+131% in 2025) while BEV share crept up only ~1 percentage point. Total fleet: 454,000+ vehicles (Electric Vehicle Council, Jan 2026). Home is overwhelmingly where charging happens. ~93% of current EV owners can charge at home, and ~70–85% do most of their charging there (Evenergi/AER; EVC/ITLS 2025). Early adopters skew toward detached homes with driveways — and ~80% of home-chargers also have rooftop solar, making their marginal charging cost close to zero. The "no driveway" segment is the structural growth engine for public charging. ~6 million Australians live in strata; an estimated 25,000 EV owners already have no off-street parking, growing ~1,000/month. As EVs move from early adopters to the mainstream, this renter/apartment cohort grows, and they can't* access cheap home tariffs. Public infrastructure is scaling but patchy. 1,310+ DC fast-charge sites and 3,436+ DC plugs, growing ~8.5% per quarter. Reliability is the persistent weak point: up to ~13% of public chargers can be unavailable at any time, dogged by first-generation Tritium hardware failures. Tesla is the outlier at ~99.5% uptime. 04 / The Public Networks A crowded field, consolidating A crowded, capital-hungry field consolidating around a few models: | Network | Owner & model | Footprint (2025–26) | Speeds | Indicative price | | ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Tesla Supercharger | Tesla; vertically integrated | 152 sites / 817 plugs; ~72% open to non-Tesla | 125–250 kW | ~48c/kWh median (member); up to 85c non-member peak; $9.99/mo non-Tesla membership; ~99.5% uptime | | Chargefox | Motoring clubs (NRMA, RACV, RACQ, RAA, RAC, RACT) | ~400+ DC locations (largest) | 50–350 kW | ~45–68c/kWh; club members save 10–20c | | Evie Networks | StB Capital (Trevor St Baker) + RACQ | 300+ locations, 1,000+ plugs | 50–400 kW | 49c member / 59c non-member; up to 75c ultra-fast | | NRMA Electric | NRMA (mutual); $78.6m federal co-funded | 100+ highway locations, national | 50–150 kW+ | 69c standard; 75–99c remote; 5c member discount | | bp pulse | bp plc; forecourt | 220+ charge points | 75 kW (upgradeable to 150) | ToU, app-only (~50–60c); AGL customers −6c | | Ampol AmpCharge | Ampol; forecourt | 73 sites / 208 sockets | 50–180 kW | ~75c/kWh flat | | JOLT | Ad-supported kerbside | 4 major cities (urban) | 25→50 kW | First 7 kWh/day free, then ~46c/kWh | Also notable: Exploren (Intellihub-backed B2B platform / "network of networks," absorbed ENGIE's ~200 ANZ chargers in 2025) and Tritium — the Brisbane hardware maker whose collapse and gen-1 reliability problems are a live drag on network uptime. Prices are rising across the board as operators chase utilisation-driven economics. The field is splitting into highway DC (Tesla, Chargefox, Evie, NRMA), forecourt (bp, Ampol), and urban kerbside (JOLT, EVX, AGL) lanes. Reliability and price opacity remain the reputational weak points — bp and Ampol are app-only, and Australia still lacks UK-style mandatory uptime penalties. 05 / Home Charging & The Free-Window Revolution The price war moved to the middle of the day Retailers are giving away the midday "solar soak" — there's now so much rooftop solar that wholesale prices routinely hit zero or go negative around noon. Free electricity has quietly become a customer-acquisition weapon. Genuinely free (0c/kWh) home windows |PLAN | FREE BLOCK | DAYS | STATES | | -------------------- | ---------------------- | -------------------- | -------------------- | | OVO "Free 3" | 11am–2pm (3 hrs) | Daily | VIC, NSW, QLD, SA | | Powershop "EV Day" | 12–2pm (2 hrs) | Daily | VIC, NSW, SA, SE QLD | | Red Energy "Red EV Saver" | 12–2pm (2 hrs) | Weekends only | NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, ACT | | GloBird "Free Lunch" REPORTED | 12–2pm | Daily | verify directly | | ActewAGL evEnergy | 12–2pm | Weekends | ACT | | Solar Sharer Offer FROM 1 JUL 2026 | 3 hrs, up to 24 kWh | Daily | NSW, SE QLD, SA (mandated) | Near-free overnight windows (cheap, not free) | Retailer | EV-window rate | When | Notes | | -------------------- | ---------------------- | -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | OVO Energy | ~4.5c/kWh | Overnight (~12–6am) | Cheapest fixed EV window; multi-state | | GloBird (EASYEV) | 6c/kWh | Overnight + 11am–2pm | Only dual night + "solar-soak" daytime window | | Powershop EV Night | ~5c | overnight | companion to EV Day| | EnergyAustralia | 7c/kWh | EV window | NSW only | | AGL | 8c/kWh | Fixed EV window | Cross-promo: −6c/kWh at public bp pulse chargers (time-limited) | | Origin (EV Power Up) | ~8c/kWh | App-scheduled | Smart-charges into solar/overnight price troughs automatically | | Amber | Wholesale pass-through | Dynamic | Near-zero/negative on good days; SmartShift automation; V2G pilot leader | | Red Energy / Engie | EV add-on / credit | Off-peak | Engie offers a $100 Chargefox sign-up credit | Reference points: a standard flat usage rate is ~29–32c/kWh; standard time-of-use off-peak is ~10–20c. So a dedicated EV plan typically halves or better even the off-peak rate — and solar self-consumption beats all of it. Policy spotlight · The July Change THE SOLAR SHARER OFFER (SSO) From 1 July 2026, every retailer in the relevant regions must offer at least one plan with a 3-hour free midday block (0c/kWh). It makes the free-window model — which Powershop, OVO and others pioneered voluntarily — government policy. EVs are an explicit target: the AER's chair has said the regulator "would like to see EVs being charged in the middle of the day."

FREE HOURS NSW & QLD 11am–2pm · SA 12–3pm
DAILY CAP Up to 24 kWh free
WHERE FIRST NSW, SE QLD, SA · Vic separate · rest by 2027
RULES Smart meter req'd · retailers must offer · opt-in

The honest catch: the free block is roughly cost-neutral for people who don't shift load — retailers recover it through slightly higher rates outside the window. You only win by genuinely moving consumption into it. A 3-phase home charger can pull 20–30 kWh in those 3 hours, making an EV close to the ideal way to monetise it. 06 / The Free-Charging Question Is free charging still happening? Yes — but it has migrated. Free charging moved off the public network (where it's nearly gone) and into the home midday window (where it's expanding and now mandated). |PUBLIC CHARGING TYPE | STILL FREE?| | -------------------- | -------------------- | | Highway DC fast | NO All major networks paid (Tesla never free here; Evie/Chargefox always paid; NRMA paid since Sep 2023; QESH since 2018) | | Urban DC top-up | JOLT ONLY First 7 kWh/day free (≈45–50 km), then ~46–54c | | AC destination | OFTEN FREE Tesla Destination (~665 venue sites), hotels, wineries, shopping centres | | AC council / kerbside | MIXED Many now metered at low cost; some legacy free chargers remain | | Workplace | OFTEN FREE To staff — but not public-facing | The free → paid timeline Early networks were grant- and demonstration-funded to seed adoption, then switched to user-pays once grants ended, queues appeared, and the cost of expanding and maintaining (read: reliability) had to be covered.

2015 RAC Electric Highway (WA) launches: free, as a decade-long demonstration project.
Jun 2018 Queensland's Electric Super Highway ends free charging → ~45c/kWh.
2019–21 Chargefox ultra-rapid intercity network opens — paid from the outset.
Sep 2023 NRMA switches its member-free fast chargers to paid (54–59c/kWh).
Jun 2025 RAC Electric Highway wound up — a fitting bookend to the free-DC era.
2025–26 JOLT remains the lone free DC option (7 kWh/day).
Free "moves home" via midday windows + the Solar Sharer Offer.

The "free kWh" has become a retailer acquisition tool, not a charging-network one, reinforcing that energy retailers, more than networks, are winning the battle to own the EV customer. Powershop "EV Day" gives 2 hours of free electricity, 12pm–2pm daily (VIC, NSW, SA, SE QLD; owned by Shell Energy Australia). That midday timing is the tell — it's a solar-soak offer, not a traditional overnight tariff. A companion "EV Night" plan runs ~5c/kWh overnight for those who'd rather charge while they sleep. 07 / Where they actually compete It's about the customer, not the kilowatt Because home charging dominates the energy, competition is concentrated here:

Marginal, away-from-home kWh for road trips and top-ups. Here public networks have no real substitute, and the competition is between operators, not against the home.
No-home-charging customer renters and apartment dwellers. This is the one segment where public/kerbside (powerpole) charging is a genuine primary substitute for home charging, and it's the fastest-growing. Nobody has fully cracked strata/kerbside/powerpole economics yet.
Customer relationship and data is the deepest battleground. Fuel majors (Ampol, bp) and motoring clubs (Chargefox/NRMA) are using charging to retain the customer they're at risk of losing as petrol declines. Retailers are using EV tariffs + VPP + (soon) V2G to lock in the household. Convergence is the theme: Ampol now sells fuel-forecourt charging and home electricity (Ampol Energy has been acquired by AGL); AGL cross-promotes with bp pulse; motoring clubs straddle both sides via memberships and Chargefox.

08 / Forward Battlegrounds What's next

"Solar soak" / smart daytime charging. With 4.3m solar homes and frequent near-zero midday wholesale prices, the next move is shifting charging into the middle of the day. Retailers (Amber, Origin's app-scheduling, GloBird's 11am–2pm window) are first movers — and AEMO's Draft 2026 ISP explicitly flags flexible EV charging as critical to grid stability.
Vehicle-to-grid (V2G). Turning the EV into a home battery / grid asset would massively widen home charging's advantage. It's technically live in SA and Amber runs an ARENA-funded pilot (~1,000 customers, expanded May 2026), but mainstream commercial V2G is gated on standards (AS 5438), OEM warranty unlocks, and AEMC tariff rules — realistically ~2027 for limited availability, ~2030 for scale. Retailers, not charging networks, are positioned to capture this.
The apartment/strata gap. Whoever solves shared/kerbside/powerpole charging economically (JOLT, destination charging, strata retrofits) reaches mainstream adoption.
Fleet & depot charging. A distinct B2B contest: novated-lease EVs are booming (FleetPartners: 60% of new novated business in FY25 was EV), with charging split messily across depot, public charge-cards, and home-reimbursement.

Policy headwinds. Most state purchase subsidies have ended; the PHEV FBT exemption ended April 2025 and the BEV exemption stages down from ~2027, modestly cooling the demand tailwind. 09 / Outlook The bottom line Expect the structural cost advantage of home charging to persist and widen (solar + smart tariffs + eventual widespread V2G), keeping public networks firmly in the complement role: premium convenience for travel and a lifeline for the no-driveway segment, not a day-to-day substitute. Public networks will consolidate (the weakest balance sheets and worst-reliability hardware shake out) and segment into highway / forecourt / kerbside / powerpole lanes. The biggest value shift goes to retailers that orchestrate the home (tariff + solar + battery + VPP + V2G) — making the electricity retailer, more than the charging network, the likely long-term "owner" of the EV customer. Sources: Electric Vehicle Council State of EVs & ownership surveys (2025–26); AEMO Draft 2026 ISP; DCCEEW / Minister for Energy releases, ABC News and SolarQuotes on the Solar Sharer Offer (Jan–Jun 2026); Powershop, OVO, AGL, Origin, EnergyAustralia, Amber, GloBird, Red Energy plan pages; Tesla, Chargefox, Evie, NRMA, bp pulse, Ampol, JOLT and Exploren network pages; Queensland Government, RAC WA announcements; Carloop / Zecar / WhySolar infrastructure & tariff comparisons (2025–26). Caveats: public-charging and retail-plan pricing change frequently and vary by site, state, and membership; several networks publish rates app-only; V2G timelines depend on standards and OEM decisions still in flux.* 35:["$","$L30","at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xqn3pspy",{"publication":{"href":"https://electricvehicle.life","pubRecord":{"url":"https://electricvehicle.life","icon":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreibdkzd5k7j4ocovrr32htzuxmqpeswrpt4pu5sezd5hcj2bu3mbam"},"size":37818,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/png"},"name":"EV Life","$type":"site.standard.publication","basicTheme":{"$type":"site.standard.theme.basic","accent":{"b":22,"g":188,"r":253,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"background":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"foreground":{"b":43,"g":32,"r":27,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"accentForeground":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"}},"description":"An Electric Vehicle Life","theme":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self"},"ownerDid":"@electricvehicle.life","contributors":[{"did":"did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor","handle":"electricvehicle.life","displayName":"🅴🆅 Life"}],"documents":{"comments_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"document_mentions_in_bsky":[{"count":0}],"recommends_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"data":{"path":"/posts/ev-charging-in-australian-public-networks-vs-home-charging/","site":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self","tags":["charging","charging-infrastructure","charging-networks","public-charging","home-charging","australia"],"$type":"site.standard.document","title":"EV Charging in Australia: Public Networks vs Home Charging","updatedAt":"2026-08-08T02:36:07.916Z","description":"A detailed comparison of public EV charging networks and home charging in Australia, exploring costs, convenience, and the strategic battle for EV customers between fuel majors, motoring clubs, and electricity retailers.","publishedAt":"2026-06-13T00:00:00.000Z","textContent":"$4d","theme":"$undefined","preferences":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xqn3pspy","sort_date":"2026-06-13T00:00:00+00:00"}}] 4e:T1023,400+ people, 20 electric grills, zero grid power 359 Official world record participants (previous record: 336, US) 20 Electric grills running simultaneously ~14 BYD EVs supplying all power via V2L 0 Generators or grid connections $50,000 OzHarvest fundraising goal A world record attempt happened today on the NSW Central Coast, and the most interesting part isn't the cooking. The Big BBQ is running 20 electric grills across Zestiny Farm in Central Mangrove entirely on Vehicle-to-Load power — meaning the electricity comes from about 14 BYD EV batteries parked on site, not from a generator or a grid connection. That's a non-trivial amount of load. Cooking for ~~400~~ 359 people simultaneously, for about 45 minutes, on portable electric grills, without a gas or wood in sight. !The Big BBQ - Zestiny Farm V2L (Vehicle-to-Load) has been available on a handful of EVs for a few years now — the Hyundai Ioniq 5, the Ford F-150 Lightning, the BYD Atto 3, and others can push power out through a dedicated outlet or the charge port. Most owners use it for camping gear or running power tools on a worksite. Using a fleet of them to power a large outdoor cooking event is a different scale of application, and it's a reasonable proof of concept for what bidirectional EV technology can actually do when you think beyond the car. These EV utes didn't ruin the weekend. They made it possible. !The Big BBQ - Zestiny Farm The event is at Zestiny Farm, a family-run certified organic property that has been farming on Mediterranean principles for over 50 years and now runs paddock-to-plate events alongside its regular produce operation. The farm supplies the ingredients directly — zucchini, beetroot, corn, black beans — for the veggie burgers participants will cook. The lemons grown there also go into Oh! Lemonaid, a product from OzHarvest Ventures, which is the charity partner for the event. Every ticket contributes toward a $50,000 fundraising goal for OzHarvest, whose yellow vans rescue 250 tonnes of food per week across Australia. !The Big BBQ - Zestiny Farm The record being attempted is the world's largest BBQ cooking lesson. The format is straightforward: everyone cooks the same two dishes at the same time, following a lead instructor on PA. The dishes are an Aussie veggie burger and a charred garlic flatbread, both using produce from the farm. The current record stands at 336 people, in the US/Texas. After the Guinness verification, there's a free sausage sizzle and live music for the rest of the afternoon. !The Big BBQ - Zestiny Farm What makes this worth writing about isn't the world record angle. It's the V2L application. Outdoor events have a power problem — you either run a long cable from a building, or you bring a generator. Generators are noisy, smell, and burn diesel. The Big BBQ is using neither. If the event runs cleanly on EV battery power, it's a concrete demonstration that V2L has practical uses well beyond individual camping trips. !The Big BBQ - Zestiny Farm Australia didn't hold any BBQ world records. Until now! 359 people participated (with 5 disqualifications), setting a new record, for Australia. That's probably the least interesting fact about today, but it's the hook that got 400 people to the Central Coast hinterland on a Sunday in June. In fact, there will be at least 6 more activation events (Big BBQ Lesson was number 1) as they head toward their title event: 'Australia Hosting The World's Largest BBQ,' which requires 50,000 people to take the title from Mexico... !The Big BBQ - Zestiny Farm The event was sold out. You can follow it at @bigbbqau on Instagram.

36:["$","$L30","at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xxc7zsny",{"publication":{"href":"https://electricvehicle.life","pubRecord":{"url":"https://electricvehicle.life","icon":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreibdkzd5k7j4ocovrr32htzuxmqpeswrpt4pu5sezd5hcj2bu3mbam"},"size":37818,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/png"},"name":"EV Life","$type":"site.standard.publication","basicTheme":{"$type":"site.standard.theme.basic","accent":{"b":22,"g":188,"r":253,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"background":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"foreground":{"b":43,"g":32,"r":27,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"accentForeground":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"}},"description":"An Electric Vehicle Life","theme":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self"},"ownerDid":"@electricvehicle.life","contributors":[{"did":"did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor","handle":"electricvehicle.life","displayName":"🅴🆅 Life"}],"documents":{"comments_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"document_mentions_in_bsky":[{"count":0}],"recommends_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"data":{"path":"/posts/the-big-bbq-guiness-world-record/","site":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self","tags":["v2l","vehicle-to-load","bidirectional","events","australia","world-record","charity"],"$type":"site.standard.document","title":"400+ People, 20 Electric Grills, Off Grid","updatedAt":"2026-08-08T02:36:18.765Z","description":"A Guinness world record attempt on the NSW Central Coast, running 20 electric grills entirely on Vehicle-to-Load power from parked BYD EVs — no generators, no grid connection.","publishedAt":"2026-06-07T00:00:00.000Z","textContent":"$4e","theme":"$undefined","preferences":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xxc7zsny","sort_date":"2026-06-07T00:00:00+00:00"}}] 4f:T111d,Over Easter 2026, social media lit up with photos of queues at EV charging stations along major Australian highways. The Coolac NSW Tesla Supercharger (a 12-bay site on the Hume Highway about 15 kilometres north of Gundagai) became the poster child for a narrative that goes like this: the charging network isn't ready, EVs are stranded, the whole thing is a disaster. The congestion was real. But the narrative deserves a closer look. What actually happened at Coolac Carloop, a platform that tracks per-minute occupancy across ten Australian charging networks, published data on the Coolac site around the same time. The numbers are instructive. Good Friday: the station ran at over 95% occupancy for roughly eight hours, from 10am to 6pm. Easter Monday: same story, another eight hours. Both periods were genuinely difficult — and worse, every other DC fast charger within 100 kilometres on the Hume Highway was simultaneously congested. There was nowhere to redirect. The social media posts weren't wrong. On those two days, on Australia's busiest interstate, EV drivers faced real queues with no viable alternatives. But here's the full picture Carloop's data covers the Coolac site from late January 2026 to mid-April. Over that full period, the station ran at 90% or higher occupancy for just 0.65% of the time. Its average occupancy was 10.3%. That is a congested site for two days of public holidays. For the other 98-odd days in the sample, it was fine. Compare that to a 12-stall urban Supercharger in Box Hill, Victoria. Average occupancy: 30% — three times higher than Coolac. Congestion above 90%: 0.4%. Urban drivers top up opportunistically and leave when a site looks busy. Highway drivers on a 600km road trip don't have that option. Understanding the hardware The Coolac site uses Tesla's V4 architecture, which is worth understanding. Each 250kW power cabinet serves three or four charging stalls. At full occupancy, four vehicles sharing one cabinet each receive a maximum of 62.5kW, meaningfully slower than the headline spec. The station's total capacity is 750kW across three cabinets and twelve stalls. Tesla addresses this with congestion pricing: $0.50 per minute once your battery exceeds 80% state of charge and the site is busy. The fee also accrues if you're plugged in but have stopped charging, discouraging the habit of topping to 100% while others wait. If the pricing does its job, the site cycles through roughly 13 vehicles per hour, each getting enough energy for about 300 kilometres of highway driving. That is actually a reasonable throughput number. The problem is the queue that forms when demand spikes past even that. The comparison that matters Here is the number that should make charging operators uncomfortable: the smallest petrol station in the Coolac area has enough bowsers to service more than four times as many vehicles per hour as the Coolac Supercharger at peak. Even with congestion pricing maximising throughput, the infrastructure gap is significant. There are at least nine petrol stations in that 100km stretch of highway. EV drivers had seven charger sites, and on Good Friday, they were all full at the same time. What the data actually says This is not an argument against EVs. It is an argument for building more charging infrastructure on high-traffic routes, faster. The commercial case is clearly there. As per Carloop, the Coolac site has generated an estimated $73,863 in charging revenue since January 2026, and that figure will only grow as EV adoption — now past 15% of new light vehicle sales — continues climbing. The demand exists. The revenue exists. The constraint is physical infrastructure. The solution is straightforward if unglamorous: more sites, more stalls per site, higher-power cabinets on major highway corridors. The Hume Highway alone likely needs three to four times its current charging capacity to handle peak holiday travel without queuing. In the meantime: if you're heading south on a long weekend, there is a six-stall Tesla Supercharger in Gundagai, ten kilometres from Coolac. Leave a gap between the two in your plan, charge to 80% and move on. The Easter queues were a preview of what happens when EV adoption outpaces infrastructure investment. The answer is not to slow the adoption. Reference Carloop37:["$","$L30","at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xqc64ctc",{"publication":{"href":"https://electricvehicle.life","pubRecord":{"url":"https://electricvehicle.life","icon":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreibdkzd5k7j4ocovrr32htzuxmqpeswrpt4pu5sezd5hcj2bu3mbam"},"size":37818,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/png"},"name":"EV Life","$type":"site.standard.publication","basicTheme":{"$type":"site.standard.theme.basic","accent":{"b":22,"g":188,"r":253,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"background":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"foreground":{"b":43,"g":32,"r":27,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"accentForeground":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"}},"description":"An Electric Vehicle Life","theme":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self"},"ownerDid":"@electricvehicle.life","contributors":[{"did":"did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor","handle":"electricvehicle.life","displayName":"🅴🆅 Life"}],"documents":{"comments_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"document_mentions_in_bsky":[{"count":0}],"recommends_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"data":{"path":"/posts/ev-charging-congestion-is-real-and-fixable/","site":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self","tags":["charging","charging-infrastructure","charging-networks","public-charging","australia","charging-etiquette"],"$type":"site.standard.document","title":"EV Charging Congestion Is Real, but Fixable","updatedAt":"2026-08-08T02:36:07.611Z","description":"Easter 2026 social media was full of charging queue horror stories. Per-minute data from Carloop tells a more nuanced story, and points to a straightforward solution.","publishedAt":"2026-04-22T00:00:00.000Z","textContent":"$4f","theme":"$undefined","preferences":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xqc64ctc","sort_date":"2026-04-22T00:00:00+00:00"}}] 38:["$","$L30","at://did:plc:7utodphaa747debxspuwmxfu/site.standard.document/3ml7jm33cps2x",{"publication":{"href":"https://abc.leaflet.pub","pubRecord":{"url":"https://abc.leaflet.pub","icon":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreihccxh3melnnswiegrbuoecopucnjrazdpwr7seii7qqwep6t2j2q"},"size":10098,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/webp"},"name":"Cuaderno de derechos digitales","$type":"site.standard.publication","theme":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.publication#theme","primary":{"b":49,"g":49,"r":59,"$type":"pub.leaflet.theme.color#rgb"},"bodyFont":"lora","pageWidth":768,"accentText":{"b":237,"g":251,"r":255,"$type":"pub.leaflet.theme.color#rgb"},"headingFont":"lora","pageBackground":{"a":100,"b":237,"g":251,"r":255,"$type":"pub.leaflet.theme.color#rgba"},"backgroundColor":{"a":100,"b":245,"g":247,"r":247,"$type":"pub.leaflet.theme.color#rgba"},"accentBackground":{"b":65,"g":65,"r":191,"$type":"pub.leaflet.theme.color#rgb"},"showPageBackground":false},"basicTheme":{"$type":"site.standard.theme.basic","accent":{"b":65,"g":65,"r":191,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"background":{"b":245,"g":247,"r":247,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"foreground":{"b":0,"g":0,"r":0,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"accentForeground":{"b":237,"g":251,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"}},"description":"\"Nada está perdido si se tiene el valor de proclamar que todo está perdido y hay que empezar de nuevo\"\n [Rayuela, Julio Cortázar]","preferences":{"showComments":true,"showMentions":true,"showPrevNext":true,"showFirstLast":true,"showInDiscover":true,"showRecommends":true,"prevNextDirection":"rtl"}},"uri":"at://did:plc:7utodphaa747debxspuwmxfu/site.standard.publication/3mkinnowjmc2e"},"ownerDid":"@rene.eurosky.social","contributors":[{"did":"did:plc:7utodphaa747debxspuwmxfu","handle":"rene.eurosky.social","displayName":"René Rodríguez 🌻 🚸 🇪🇺"}],"documents":{"comments_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"document_mentions_in_bsky":[{"count":0}],"recommends_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"data":{"path":"/3ml7jm33cps2x","site":"at://did:plc:7utodphaa747debxspuwmxfu/site.standard.publication/3mkinnowjmc2e","tags":["Redes sociales","16 años","Australia"],"$type":"site.standard.document","title":"Australia: ¿Por qué falla la limitación del acceso de los menores de 16 años a redes sociales?","content":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.content","pages":[{"id":"019dfeec-fce4-7441-9e3b-ab0d6688037a","$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument","blocks":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.text","facets":[{"index":{"byteEnd":263,"byteStart":256},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#bold"}]},{"index":{"byteEnd":310,"byteStart":280},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#bold"}]}],"plaintext":"Australia se convirtió en diciembre de 2025 en el primer país en prohibir el acceso a redes sociales para menores de 16 años, con multas millonarias para plataformas que incumplieran la norma. Sin embargo, tres meses después, un informe del regulador eSafety revela que un “porcentaje significativo” de adolescentes sigue activo en Instagram, TikTok o YouTube, gracias a fallos como la posibilidad de modificar la edad declarada o registrar cuentas con datos falsos. "}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.text","facets":[{"index":{"byteEnd":13,"byteStart":12},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#footnote","footnoteId":"019dfef3-828b-7661-9b34-70a317401236","contentFacets":[{"index":{"byteEnd":111,"byteStart":98},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#italic"}]},{"index":{"byteEnd":206,"byteStart":113},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#underline"},{"uri":"https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20260401/11503683/australia-aplicar-veto-redes-menores.html","$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#link"}]}],"contentPlaintext":"Fita, J. (2026, 1 de abril). ¿Por qué Australia no puede aplicar el veto a las redes a menores? La Vanguardia. https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20260401/11503683/australia-aplicar-veto-redes-menores.html"}]}],"plaintext":"El artículo*, basado en datos oficiales y en la opinión del experto Pablo Duchement, subraya una paradoja:"}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.blockquote","facets":[{"index":{"byteEnd":38,"byteStart":17},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#bold"}]},{"index":{"byteEnd":134,"byteStart":118},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#bold"}]}],"plaintext":"Las plataformas tienen la tecnología para verificar edades —incluso la usan para publicidad segmentada—, pero eluden aplicarla por intereses económicos, ya que los menores son “grandes consumidores de contenido”."}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.text","facets":[{"index":{"byteEnd":60,"byteStart":21},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#bold"}]},{"index":{"byteEnd":361,"byteStart":332},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#bold"}]},{"index":{"byteEnd":547,"byteStart":533},"features":[{"$type":"pub.leaflet.richtext.facet#bold"}]}],"plaintext":"El texto destaca la contundencia de la denuncia australiana, respaldada por cifras: aunque se eliminaron 4.7 millones de cuentas, el 31.3% de los menores sigue en redes, y 7 de cada 10 de los que ya tenían perfiles continúan activos. Duchement, especialista en delitos digitales, señala que el problema no es técnico, sino de falta de voluntad corporativa, y advierte que solo las sanciones judiciales —como las que prepara el gobierno de Anika Wells— podrían cambiar la situación. Sin embargo, el artículo pecaría de unilateralidad: no incluye la postura de las plataformas ni explora soluciones alternativas, como programas de alfabetización digital o regulaciones colaborativas con otros países."}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"src":"https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20260401/11503683/australia-aplicar-veto-redes-menores.html","$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.website","title":"¿Por qué Australia no puede aplicar el veto a las redes a menores?","description":"El Ejecutivo amenaza con llevar a sus propietarios frente al Tribunal Federal","previewImage":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreifcyvdzjvpceilcui5acd3ndmsveju7dvvksyhv4ipjs4hoajpuom"},"size":29016,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/png"}}}]}]},"description":"Reseña del artículo de Josep Fita en La Vanguardia, publicado el 1 de abril de 2026","publishedAt":"2026-04-07T20:20:00.000Z","theme":"$undefined","preferences":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:7utodphaa747debxspuwmxfu/site.standard.document/3ml7jm33cps2x","sort_date":"2026-04-07T20:20:00+00:00"}}] 39:["$","$L30","at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry34xobmkgp",{"publication":{"href":"https://electricvehicle.life","pubRecord":{"url":"https://electricvehicle.life","icon":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreibdkzd5k7j4ocovrr32htzuxmqpeswrpt4pu5sezd5hcj2bu3mbam"},"size":37818,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/png"},"name":"EV Life","$type":"site.standard.publication","basicTheme":{"$type":"site.standard.theme.basic","accent":{"b":22,"g":188,"r":253,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"background":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"foreground":{"b":43,"g":32,"r":27,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"accentForeground":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"}},"description":"An Electric Vehicle Life","theme":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self"},"ownerDid":"@electricvehicle.life","contributors":[{"did":"did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor","handle":"electricvehicle.life","displayName":"🅴🆅 Life"}],"documents":{"comments_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"document_mentions_in_bsky":[{"count":0}],"recommends_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"data":{"path":"/news/2026/2026-02-february/","site":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self","tags":["ev-sales","australia","policy-incentives","tesla","safety","market-growth"],"$type":"site.standard.document","title":"February 2026","updatedAt":"2026-08-08T02:36:38.328Z","description":"Australia's electric vehicle market enters 2026 on a strong trajectory, with fresh sales records and projections of a sixfold increase by 2030 anchoring an optimistic outlook for adoption. Government incentives continue to shape consumer behavior — notably an electric car discount that has pushed over 100,000 EVs onto roads — while leasing is emerging as an accessible pathway for cost-conscious buyers navigating ongoing cost-of-living pressures. Industry voices are urging retention of those incentives even as policy debates continue, and safety milestones are celebrated with electrified models earning five-star ANCAP ratings. On the global stage, Volkswagen reaching five million electric-drive units and Tesla moving to a subscription model for Full Self-Driving in Australia signal maturing market dynamics, with a note of caution from research highlighting cybersecurity vulnerabilities in autonomous vehicles.","publishedAt":"2026-02-27T00:00:00.000Z","textContent":"","theme":"$undefined","preferences":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry34xobmkgp","sort_date":"2026-02-27T00:00:00+00:00"}}] 3a:["$","$L30","at://did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6/site.standard.document/3mnfujixozr2w",{"publication":{"href":"https://michaelband.com","pubRecord":{"url":"https://michaelband.com","icon":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreid4opxcrj4ukwfrquwox3jc62oxi73xso32ja3nrorgx7xkwoerbm"},"size":54108,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/png"},"name":"michaelband.com","$type":"site.standard.publication","createdAt":"2026-06-03T19:13:21.517Z","preferences":{"showComments":true,"showMentions":true,"showPrevNext":false,"showInDiscover":true,"showRecommends":true},"theme":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6/site.standard.publication/3mnfswdfcx42p"},"ownerDid":"@michaelband.com","contributors":[{"did":"did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6","handle":"michaelband.com","displayName":"Michael Band"}],"documents":{"comments_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"document_mentions_in_bsky":[{"count":0}],"recommends_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"data":{"path":"/blog/posts/week-on-hamilton-island-during-a-cyclone","site":"at://did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6/site.standard.publication/3mnfswdfcx42p","tags":["delays","Airports","Flights","tropical cyclone","Hamilton Island","Virgin Australia","Australia"],"$type":"site.standard.document","title":"Cancelled Flights, Tropical Cyclone Koji & Very Wet Weather on Hamilton Island","coverImage":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreiejddeagi3eayv6n2z3ks3jir7x2yorrb5dhea273vvil75f4ghle"},"size":78278,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/jpeg"},"bskyPostRef":{"cid":"bafyreia6hywywstgc6ginqu5zipdjibcvzcmapekjgba5mbxdfu76i7dr4","uri":"at://did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6/app.bsky.feed.post/3moa7guq5vr2g","$type":"com.atproto.repo.strongRef"},"description":"How Tropical Cyclone Koji and cancelled Virgin Australia flights turned a Hamilton Island trip into a wet, windy Queensland travel story.","publishedAt":"2026-01-12T00:00:00.000Z","textContent":"How Tropical Cyclone Koji and cancelled Virgin Australia flights turned a Hamilton Island trip into a wet, windy Queensland travel story.","canonicalUrl":"https://michaelband.com/blog/posts/week-on-hamilton-island-during-a-cyclone","theme":"$undefined","preferences":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6/site.standard.document/3mnfujixozr2w","sort_date":"2026-01-12T00:00:00+00:00"}}] 3b:["$","$L30","at://did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6/site.standard.document/3mnfujk5a5b2m",{"publication":{"href":"https://michaelband.com","pubRecord":{"url":"https://michaelband.com","icon":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreid4opxcrj4ukwfrquwox3jc62oxi73xso32ja3nrorgx7xkwoerbm"},"size":54108,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/png"},"name":"michaelband.com","$type":"site.standard.publication","createdAt":"2026-06-03T19:13:21.517Z","preferences":{"showComments":true,"showMentions":true,"showPrevNext":false,"showInDiscover":true,"showRecommends":true},"theme":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6/site.standard.publication/3mnfswdfcx42p"},"ownerDid":"@michaelband.com","contributors":[{"did":"did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6","handle":"michaelband.com","displayName":"Michael Band"}],"documents":{"comments_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"document_mentions_in_bsky":[{"count":0}],"recommends_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"data":{"path":"/blog/posts/vip-experience-big-brother-australia-house","site":"at://did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6/site.standard.publication/3mnfswdfcx42p","tags":["Dreamworld","Big Brother Australia","Gold Coast","Australia"],"$type":"site.standard.document","title":"Visiting the Big Brother Australia House - 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We request that external contributors also refrain from using generative AI tools when working for Crikey and retain the right to refuse this work.\n\nCrikey may use other artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to assist its editorial processes, like for transcribing audio or analysing datasets where applicable."}},{"$type":"pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block","block":{"src":"https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/08/17/crikey-editorial-guidelines/","$type":"pub.leaflet.blocks.website","title":"Crikey's editorial guidelines","description":"We're publishing these guidelines with the aim of transparency, clarity for our contributors, and accountability to our 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culture.","publishedAt":"2025-12-21T12:34:36.421Z","theme":"$undefined","preferences":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:2lfiqxt6j3phcrlfursvnxdy/site.standard.document/3maiq6cwywc2z","sort_date":"2025-12-21T12:34:36.421+00:00"}}] 3d:["$","$L30","at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xo5hukas",{"publication":{"href":"https://electricvehicle.life","pubRecord":{"url":"https://electricvehicle.life","icon":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreibdkzd5k7j4ocovrr32htzuxmqpeswrpt4pu5sezd5hcj2bu3mbam"},"size":37818,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/png"},"name":"EV Life","$type":"site.standard.publication","basicTheme":{"$type":"site.standard.theme.basic","accent":{"b":22,"g":188,"r":253,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"background":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"foreground":{"b":43,"g":32,"r":27,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"accentForeground":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"}},"description":"An Electric Vehicle Life","theme":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self"},"ownerDid":"@electricvehicle.life","contributors":[{"did":"did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor","handle":"electricvehicle.life","displayName":"🅴🆅 Life"}],"documents":{"comments_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"document_mentions_in_bsky":[{"count":0}],"recommends_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"data":{"path":"/posts/2025-wrap-up/","site":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self","tags":["australia","events","market-trends","policy"],"$type":"site.standard.document","title":"The 2025 Wrap-up","updatedAt":"2026-08-08T02:36:04.319Z","description":"The EV Life 2025 Wrap-up","publishedAt":"2025-12-14T00:00:00.000Z","textContent":"Another year is coming to an end, and it’s time for a wrap-up of 2025 in the Aussie EV world, and a look ahead to 2026.\nOur short 2025 Wrap-Up\nOr revisit the 2025 Events Timeline or News Archive for more details.","theme":"$undefined","preferences":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xo5hukas","sort_date":"2025-12-14T00:00:00+00:00"}}] 50:T1e99, 12% EV share of new-car sales, H1 2025 (up from 9.6% in H1 2024) 16% Record monthly high — June 2025 14,000+ More EVs sold than in the same period in 2024 ~100 EV models now available in Australia Electric Vehicle Sales Surge in Australia: The 2025 Turning Point Electric vehicle adoption in Australia has hit an all-time high in 2025, signaling a profound shift in the nation’s transport landscape. The first half of the year saw over 14,000 additional EVs sold compared to the same period in 2024. With electric vehicles (BEV + PHEV) now accounting for nearly 12% of all new car sales, and a record-breaking 16% in June alone, Australians are embracing EVs at an unprecedented pace. We explore the key drivers behind this surge, the role of supportive government policies, the changing attitudes of Australian consumers, and what’s next for the electric future of Australia. The Growth Story: How EV Sales Are Accelerating in 2025 Record Sales and Market Share Milestones According to the Electric Vehicle Council (EVC), EV sales in Australia have not only increased in raw numbers but have also achieved significant market penetration: 12% of all new cars sold in H1 2025 were EVs (BEV + PHEV), up from 9.6% in H1 2024. June 2025 set a new monthly record, with EVs making up nearly 16% of total vehicle sales. This rapid growth reflects a decisive consumer shift towards cleaner, more sustainable transport options. Key Drivers Behind the EV Surge 1. Federal Government Support and Incentives Federal policies and incentives are playing a crucial role in making EVs more accessible: Introduction of the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard in 2025. Increased affordability and variety in EV models. Financial incentives that make the transition more appealing for everyday Australians. “The transition to electric vehicles is picking up speed because of federal government support and more Australians recognising that making the switch is good for the environment and their wallets.” , Julie Delvecchio, CEO, Electric Vehicle Council 2. Growing Consumer Awareness Australians are becoming more aware of the environmental and economic benefits of EV ownership: Lower running costs compared to petrol vehicles. Contribution to reducing emissions and improving air quality. A growing perception that EVs are the future of transport, not a niche alternative. New charging stations popping up at shopping centres, workplaces, and public spaces, making EV ownership more convenient. 3. Expanded Vehicle Choices Thanks to the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard, consumers now have more affordable and diverse EV options, from compact hatchbacks to family SUVs and commercial vans. This diversity is critical in meeting the needs of: Families Tradespeople Small businesses Urban commuters The New Australian EV Owner: A Changing Profile The EV market is no longer limited to early adopters or environmentally conscious consumers. Today’s EV drivers in Australia include: Families choosing EV SUVs for school runs and weekend trips. Small business owners using electric vans for deliveries. Tradespeople using electrified utes (mostly still PHEV). Everyday commuters opting for compact EVs for city driving. Once Australians make the switch to electric, the data suggests they rarely look back. What’s Next: The Road Ahead for EVs in Australia Infrastructure Expansion To sustain the growth in EV sales, charging infrastructure must scale rapidly. Accessible and fast-charging options are essential to support the increasing number of EV drivers, both in the city, suburbs and regional areas (like the Central Coast, Hunter Valley, Blue Mountains, and beyond...). Continued Policy Support Ongoing government backing will be critical: Further incentives for EV purchases. Support for vehicle-to-grid technologies. Regulatory frameworks that continue to encourage manufacturers to bring affordable models to market. Industry Innovation Australia's EV ecosystem is ripe for innovation, particularly in: Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) solutions which allow EVs to supply energy back to the grid. Advanced battery technologies that improve range and charging speed. New financing models that make EV ownership even more accessible. “More EVs on our roads benefit all Australians, delivering quieter streets, cleaner air, and greater protection for our environment.” , Julie Delvecchio, Electric Vehicle Council 2025 is shaping up as a landmark year for Australia’s electric vehicle journey. With record-breaking sales, strong government support, increasing consumer confidence, and a rapidly diversifying market, the shift to electric transport is no longer a distant goal, it’s happening now. To maintain this momentum, Australia must continue investing in infrastructure, policy innovation, and public education. The benefits of this transition are clear: cleaner cities, lower carbon emissions, and a transport system that’s ready for the future. FAQ Q: What percentage of new car sales in Australia were EVs (BEV + PHEV) in June 2025? A: EVs made up nearly 16% of all new vehicles sold in Australia in June 2025. Q: Who is driving EV adoption in Australia? A: A wide range of Australians, including tradespeople, families, small business owners, and city commuters, are now embracing EVs. Q: Why is infrastructure critical for EV growth? A: A reliable, widespread charging network is essential to support the growing number of EVs on Australian roads and to alleviate consumer concerns about charging accessibility. Australia needs lots more. Q: How can EVs contribute to a cleaner environment? A: EVs produce zero tailpipe emissions, leading to improved air quality and reduced greenhouse gas emissions compared to traditional petrol or diesel vehicles. (See also Life Cycle Assessment and Car Manufacturing LCA for the full picture.) Q: What are some of the EV brands and models (BEV + PHEV) available in Australia? A: The nearly 100 different EV models sold in the first half of 2025 include a wide range of options, from compact cars to SUVs and commercial vehicles, catering to diverse consumer needs. They include (in # sales order): Tesla Model Y, BYD Sealion 7, Tesla Model 3, Kia EV5, MG 4, BYD Atto 3, Geely EX5, BYD Seal, BYD Dolphin, Kia EV3, BMW iX1, MG ZS EV, BMW iX2, Volvo EX30, Polestar 4, Porsche Macan, BMW i4, Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV, Audi Q4 e-tron, Mercedes-Benz EQA, Chery Omoda E5 / E5, Toyota bZ4X, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Polestar 2, Zeekr X, Mercedes-Benz EQB, Mini Aceman, Volvo XC40 Recharge / EX40, Mini Countryman E, Hyundai Kona Electric, GWM Ora, Cupra Born, MG S5, Mini Cooper E, BMW i5, Kia EV6, Ford Mustang Mach-E, BMW iX3, Hyundai Inster, BMW iX, Leapmotor C10 EV, Volkswagen ID.4, Cupra Tavascan, Kia EV9, Volvo C40 Recharge, Volkswagen ID. Buzz, Renault Megane E-Tech, Audi Q6 e-tron, Porsche Taycan, Subaru Solterra, Skoda Enyaq, Volvo EX90, Polestar 3, Volkswagen ID. Buzz Cargo, Deepal S07, Volkswagen ID.5, Mercedes-Benz EQE, Hyundai Ioniq 6, Fiat 500e / Abarth 500e, Zeekr 009, LDV eDeliver7, Nissan Leaf, Kia Niro EV, Ford E-Transit, Jeep Avenger, Mercedes-Benz eVito van, Peugeot E-Partner, MG Cyberster, Mercedes-Benz G-Class EV, Lexus RZ, Audi Q8 e-tron, LDV eDeliver 9, Mercedes-Benz eVito Tourer, Audi e-tron GT, Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV, Renault Kangoo E-Tech, Lexus UX300e, BMW i7, Ford E-Transit Custom, Mercedes-Benz EQV, Peugeot E-308, Genesis GV70 Electrified, Peugeot E-Expert, Genesis GV60, Rolls-Royce Spectre, LDV eT60, Mercedes-Benz eSprinter van, Lotus Eletre, Genesis G80 Electrified, Jaguar I-Pace, LDV Mifa 9, Lotus Emeya, Mercedes-Benz EQS, Skoda Elroq, Mazda MX-30 Electric, Maserati GranTurismo / GranCabrio Folgore and Renault Trafic E-Tech.3e:["$","$L30","at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xq4w5cmn",{"publication":{"href":"https://electricvehicle.life","pubRecord":{"url":"https://electricvehicle.life","icon":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreibdkzd5k7j4ocovrr32htzuxmqpeswrpt4pu5sezd5hcj2bu3mbam"},"size":37818,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/png"},"name":"EV Life","$type":"site.standard.publication","basicTheme":{"$type":"site.standard.theme.basic","accent":{"b":22,"g":188,"r":253,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"background":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"foreground":{"b":43,"g":32,"r":27,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"accentForeground":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"}},"description":"An Electric Vehicle Life","theme":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self"},"ownerDid":"@electricvehicle.life","contributors":[{"did":"did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor","handle":"electricvehicle.life","displayName":"🅴🆅 Life"}],"documents":{"comments_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"document_mentions_in_bsky":[{"count":0}],"recommends_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"data":{"path":"/posts/electric-vehicle-sales-2025-turning-point/","site":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self","tags":["market-trends","ev-adoption","policy","australia"],"$type":"site.standard.document","title":"Electric Vehicle Sales 2025 Turning Point","updatedAt":"2026-08-08T02:36:07.213Z","description":"Electric vehicle (EV) sales in Australia are surging in 2025, with new policies, growing consumer interest, and record-breaking adoption driving the shift towards sustainable transport.","publishedAt":"2025-07-04T00:00:00.000Z","textContent":"$50","theme":"$undefined","preferences":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xq4w5cmn","sort_date":"2025-07-04T00:00:00+00:00"}}] 51:T26ce,Driving an EV, in Australia in 2025, will still require some adjustment. One such adjustment is having a dozen extra apps on your phone, for charging and trip planning. Your phone becomes your co-pilot, route planner, and payment terminal all in one. Below is an overview of the apps I sometimes have to rely on for both charging and planning. Whether you’re topping up during your weekly shopping run or embarking on a multi-day adventure, these tools will help you charge smarter and travel farther. ⸻ ⚡ Charging Apps Remember apps need an internet connection to connect and pay. Some chargers could be underground, where you might need an RFID/NFC card instead. In no particular order: 1. Evie Charging evie.com.au Network: Often at shopping centres, with multiple CSS2 and a single CHAdeMO plug. Shop and charge! Key Features: Autocharge feature , mimicking the ease of use for Teslas on Tesla’s own network: plug in and walk away. Soo good! Map with real-time charger availability and pricing RFID/NFC card support for quick access: Yes. In-app payment with stored cards on account. Interactive map showing charger status (available, in use, offline) Push notifications (app, txt, email options) when charging is complete (as idle fees apply) Detailed session history and receipts Idle fees apply Evie are working on a network roaming feature, like is custom in Europe, as a one-stop shop for Aussie charging networks —- no need to juggle multiple logins. But that’s probably still a while away (2026+). On the Central Coast: Only one location, at Erina Fair Shopping Centre (2x 75kWh chargers, of which 3x CCS2, 1x CHAdeMO). 2. Chargefox chargefox.com Network: Australia’s largest public charging network, owned and operated by NRMA, RACV, RACQ, RAA, RAC and RACT. Still free at some locations (but less so than it used to be). Key Features: Ultra-fast chargers (up to 350 kW) Membership tiers for discounted rates Discount for NRMA members (10%) Simple “plug, tap & charge” RFID/NFC support Woolworths rewards at Woolworths Chargefox chargers (only) On the Central Coast : NRMA Ocean Beach Resort, Lake Haven Centre (Engie) Collection of RFID/NFC cards for offline charging: !rfid cards 3. bp pulse bp.com Network: BP’s expanding charging network across Australia, at their petrol stations Key Features: Transparent per-kWh pricing, time base discounted tarrifs Push notifications when charging is complete Real-time charger availability Detailed session history and receipts Use the “Favorites” feature to bookmark frequently visited stations. Idle fees apply On the Central Coast : Tumbi Umbi (single 75 kWh charger, close to fast food). Wyong (next to Aldi => shop and charge!) has 4x 150 kWh chargers (and 2x CHAdeMO) + a double "ultra-fast" 300 kWh charger, but note that the 300 kWh charger costs 7c/kWh more than the 150 kWh chargers. !Jolt charger 4. Ampol ampcharge.ampol.com.au Network: Ampol’s EV charging sites, co-located on their petrol stations, some with convenience stores Key Features: In-app pay-as-you-go charging Station finder with filters (e.g., fast charger only) Integration with Woolworths Rewards Often only one single 75 kWh charger with a CCS2 and CHAdeMO plug Idle fees apply On the Central Coast: Gosford, Charmhaven, Kincumber and Bateau Bay. Still disappointing that despite their large petrol station network, charging is still limited to very few stations. Although I don’t belief a petrol station is the right location for charging your EV (unless around motorways). Still, they could expand their brand to shopping centres for charging without the petrol (as they also provide Ampol AmpCharge Energy electricity at home). bp pulse, EVX, Evie apps: !iosapps 5. EVX evx.tech Network: NSW network growing in metro and regional areas, network of power pole chargers used with bring-your-own cable. Key Features: Live charger availability Simple “plug & charge” RFID/NFC support on select stations Slower Type 2 AC charging (up to 22 kW) with bring-your-own cable Not available on the Central Coast EVX charger near Newcastle, NSW, with bring-your-own cable: !Power Pole charger 6. JOLT jolt.com.au Network: Boutique metropolitan charging and advertisement network in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane suburbs. Key Features: Daily 7 kWh free charging, advertisement based Live charger availability and countdown when plug becomes available. Some have a CHAdeMO plug available. Live charger availability Membership options to get more free daily charging as well as timed discounts, reservations Idle fees apply Not available on the Central Coast. Jolt charger on the Northern Beaches, Sydney: !Jolt charger 7. Everty everty.com.au Network: Slow Type 2 AC, bring-your-own cable Live charger availability Tip: Check the reliability score on PlugShare before deviating from your route to charge. On the Central Coast: Glenworth Valley only (slow 7kWh). Else, Lake Macquarie's Swansea behind the Library there at 25kWh, close to Coles. Everty charger in Swansea: !Everty charger in Swansea 8. Exploren exploren.com.au Network: Regional network focused on underserved areas. Slower (but cheaper) Type 2 AC charging only, bring-your-own cable Key Features: Integration with caravan parks, tourist sites, RSL clubs RFID/NFC support Live charger availability Why It Matters: Keeps you moving through rural zones where coverage is sparse. On the Central Coast: Gosford RSL Club (3x), Narara Eco Village (2x), The Entrance Leagues Club (3x) close to Bateau Bay Square, Mingara Leisure Club, Bridgeview Motel (2x). Few around Lake Macquarie council area. 9. Tesla tesla.com/findus Network: Tesla Supercharger network. Also open to other EVs at select sites Key Features: On Teslas, seamless “plug-and-charge” without any additional app steps "Ultra-fast" power DC charging (up to 250 kW+ on V3 stalls) Live station occupancy overlays No Chademo Idle fees apply Pay less with a membership plan ($10/month, making it $0.53/kWh vs. $0.72/kWh). Worth Knowing: Even if you don’t drive a Tesla, some stations are accessible via the Tesla app—just check compatibility first. On the Central Coast: Tuggerah for Teslas only (V2 chargers). Gosford for all EVs (12x V3 250 kWh chargers). Some destination chargers may or may not support other EVs. Tesla Tuggerah charger - above Bunnings: !Tesla Tuggerah charger ⸻ 🗺️ Mapping & Trip Planning Apps Your car may come with a built-in navigation system, optimized for your EV, dedicated mapping and trip planning apps add another layer of convenience and functionality. These apps are designed to help you plan your route, find charging stations and local amenities, and manage your trip more effectively, especially useful for long trips or when venturing into areas with limited charging infrastructure. 1. PlugShare Coverage: Crowd-sourced database of every public charger worldwide Key Features: User photos and reviews of stations Customizable filters (network, connector, speed) “Trip” mode to plot charging stops automatically Why I Use It: The community insights (e.g., “this site’s broken” or “great café next door”) are invaluable. 2. Chargetrip Go Coverage: Global, with intelligent route optimization Key Features: Calculates optimal stops based on vehicle model, battery state, and desired arrival charge Live traffic integration and weather overlays EV cost calculator per trip Pro Tip: Pre-set your car’s make/model for more accurate range estimates. 3. EV Navigation Coverage: Focused on Australia & New Zealand networks Key Features: Offline support for multi-day trips Integration with CarPlay for on-screen directions Battery-level warnings and detour suggestions When to Open It: In CarPlay mode when you want seamless, voice-guided charging directions. 4. A Better Routeplanner (ABRP) Coverage: Worldwide, with very detailed vehicle profiles Key Features: Fine-tune charging curves per vehicle and charger type Customizable “comfort” vs. “speed” optimization Weather, elevation, and driving style adjustments Why go paid: Their premium subscription unlocks live data overlays, CarPlay and advanced predictors (but to be honest I was quite disappointed when I tried the paid features). Chargetrip Go: chargers around Crows Nest, NSW; map showing how far your car goes on a full charge down to zero, from Gosford? !Chargetrip Go A Better Routeplanner: from Canberra to Narara, Central Coast; showing the route, timing, and one charging stop. !A Better Routeplanner ⸻ Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your EV Apps 1. Pre-Load Payment Methods: Save your credit card or Apple Pay info in each charging app to avoid fumbling at the station. Double check after app updates. 2. Combine Tools: Use a mapping app like ABRP or Chargetrip Go to plot your trip, then switch to the native charging app (e.g., Chargefox or Evie) to initiate the charging session. 3. Monitor Charger Health: Check user reviews or “reliability scores” before you detour — an alternative 5 km down the road might save you 30 minutes. 4. Stay Offline-Ready: Download offline maps or screenshots in remote areas; some mapping apps (like EV Navigation) will function without cell service. 5. Leverage Rewards: Sign up for membership programs to earn free kWh or discounted rates. 6. Plan for Amenities: Use PlugShare’s community photos to find AC chargers near cafés, toilets, or picnic spots — turn charging time into a mini-break. ⸻ 🚀 Conclusion With the right suite of apps on your phone, range anxiety becomes a thing of the past. Charging and mapping tools each bring unique strengths—combined with your in-car mapping app. Experiment with a combination that matches your driving patterns, and you’ll unlock smoother, more confident trips whether you’re zipping around town or exploring Australia’s vast highways. Safe travels, and happy charging! See also So Many Apps3f:["$","$L30","at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xr54g2tw",{"publication":{"href":"https://electricvehicle.life","pubRecord":{"url":"https://electricvehicle.life","icon":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreibdkzd5k7j4ocovrr32htzuxmqpeswrpt4pu5sezd5hcj2bu3mbam"},"size":37818,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/png"},"name":"EV Life","$type":"site.standard.publication","basicTheme":{"$type":"site.standard.theme.basic","accent":{"b":22,"g":188,"r":253,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"background":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"foreground":{"b":43,"g":32,"r":27,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"accentForeground":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"}},"description":"An Electric Vehicle Life","theme":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self"},"ownerDid":"@electricvehicle.life","contributors":[{"did":"did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor","handle":"electricvehicle.life","displayName":"🅴🆅 Life"}],"documents":{"comments_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"document_mentions_in_bsky":[{"count":0}],"recommends_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"data":{"path":"/posts/ev-essential-mobile-apps/","site":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self","tags":["charging","charging-apps","trip-planning","australia"],"$type":"site.standard.document","title":"EV Essential Mobile Apps","updatedAt":"2026-08-08T02:36:08.660Z","description":"A guide to the essential mobile apps for charging and planning your EV journey downunder.","publishedAt":"2025-06-14T00:00:00.000Z","textContent":"$51","theme":"$undefined","preferences":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xr54g2tw","sort_date":"2025-06-14T00:00:00+00:00"}}] 52:T90a,New NSW EV Fast Chargers: “Fast Chargers on the Way for NSW Drivers”: Scope & Funding The NSW Government’s latest Fast Charging Infrastructure grants (third round) will deliver over 300 new fast-charging ports at 103 locations statewide, backed by $16.1 million in public funding ⁠— part of a broader $149 million commitment to reach 1,000+ fast bays by 2025. In parallel, a ministerial media release details 246 fast and ultra-fast chargers to be installed across 38 suburbs, with the same $16.1 million in grants boosted by $25.1 million in private co-investment (BP, Energy Australia, Plus ES, Tesla, NRMA) for a $41.2 million total rollout. Partners & Locations Key network partners include BP, Evie, Tesla, NRMA, Energy Australia and Plus ES, ensuring broad geographic reach across metro and regional NSW. The ministerial release specifically names 38 suburbs , while the NRMA announcement covers 103 locations selected to close “critical charging gaps.” Charger Specifications & Accessibility Both programs focus on fast (50–150 kW) and ultra-fast (up to 350 kW+) chargers, capable of replenishing 10 → 80% battery in 10–15 minutes, dramatically reducing “range anxiety.” Installations will include pull-through bays for caravans/trailers and disability-accessible chargers to accommodate a wide range of users. Strategic Goals & Impact These investments accelerate NSW’s transition to EVs, support the state’s Net Zero targets, and encourage wider adoption by making long-distance travel and everyday charging more convenient and reliable. “We are already seeing the benefits of NSW Government investment here in Heathcote where today I have cut a ribbon to celebrate BP’s newest EV charging station, making it easier for EV drivers to hit the road quickly.” said Member for Heathcote, Maryanne Stuart at a BP charging station launch in Heathcote. With over 300 new ports rolling out under matched funding streams, NSW drivers can look forward to a vastly expanded, fast-charging network powered by renewable energy, paving the way for seamless EV travel across the state. Planned new NSW EV Fast Charger locations: !plannednsw.jpg Includes two new planned locations on the Central Coast, NSW: Tuggerah and Ourimbah. ⸻ Read on NRMA40:["$","$L30","at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xvyabsmn",{"publication":{"href":"https://electricvehicle.life","pubRecord":{"url":"https://electricvehicle.life","icon":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreibdkzd5k7j4ocovrr32htzuxmqpeswrpt4pu5sezd5hcj2bu3mbam"},"size":37818,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/png"},"name":"EV Life","$type":"site.standard.publication","basicTheme":{"$type":"site.standard.theme.basic","accent":{"b":22,"g":188,"r":253,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"background":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"foreground":{"b":43,"g":32,"r":27,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"accentForeground":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"}},"description":"An Electric Vehicle Life","theme":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self"},"ownerDid":"@electricvehicle.life","contributors":[{"did":"did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor","handle":"electricvehicle.life","displayName":"🅴🆅 Life"}],"documents":{"comments_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"document_mentions_in_bsky":[{"count":0}],"recommends_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"data":{"path":"/posts/nsw-new-planned-chargers/","site":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self","tags":["charging-infrastructure","policy","nsw","australia"],"$type":"site.standard.document","title":"New Planned NSW EV Fast Chargers","updatedAt":"2026-08-08T02:36:15.681Z","description":"Encouraging wider adoption by making long-distance travel and everyday charging more convenient and reliable","publishedAt":"2025-05-27T00:00:00.000Z","textContent":"$52","theme":"$undefined","preferences":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xvyabsmn","sort_date":"2025-05-27T00:00:00+00:00"}}] 53:T1a47,Discover how Australia’s Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) exemption on electric vehicles works, who qualifies, how much you can save, and why novated leases are key to unlocking these benefits. Introduction: Novated Lease FBT exemption policy Electric vehicles (EVs) are rapidly gaining traction in Australia, thanks in part to government incentives that make them more financially accessible. One of the most significant of these is the Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) exemption on EVs—a policy that can substantially reduce the cost of owning an electric car when financed through a novated lease. But how exactly does this tax exemption work, and who stands to benefit the most? In this article, we explore the mechanics of the FBT exemption, its eligibility criteria, financial advantages, and key considerations for anyone thinking of making the switch to an electric vehicle. What is the Fringe Benefits Tax Exemption on EVs? The Fringe Benefits Tax is a levy applied to non-cash benefits provided by employers to their employees, such as company cars. Normally, if you choose a car for personal use through your employer, that vehicle would attract FBT. However, under Australia’s current policy, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are exempt from this tax if financed via a novated lease. This exemption allows employees to pay for the vehicle and its running costs entirely from their pre-tax income (salary sacrifice), significantly reducing the taxable portion of their salary. Key Conditions: Applies to BEVs and fuel cell EVs purchased new or used on or after 1 July 2022. Plug-in hybrid EVs qualify until 31 March 2025. Vehicle must be below the Luxury Car Tax (LCT) threshold
(e.g., \$91,387 for fuel-efficient vehicles in FY 2024-2025). Only accessible through a novated lease arrangement. What is a Novated Lease and Why Does It Matter? A novated lease is a three-way agreement between you, your employer, and a leasing company. It enables you to finance a vehicle using pre-tax salary deductions, often resulting in significant tax savings. Novated Lease Features: Lease payments and running costs (insurance, servicing, registration) come from pre-tax income (salary sacrifice). You retain responsibility for the lease if you change jobs. Employers typically face no financial risk; they simply facilitate payroll deductions. Without the FBT exemption, a portion of the lease would need to be funded with after-tax salary to offset FBT liabilities. Thanks to the exemption, all payments can now be made entirely from pre-tax salary, increasing the financial appeal. Who is Eligible for the FBT Exemption? Vehicles That Qualify: Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs) Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) purchased before 31 March 2025* Cars purchased on or after 1 July 2022 Vehicles below the LCT threshold when factoring in accessories and dealer delivery Vehicles That Do Not Qualify: Cars purchased before 1 July 2022 Vehicles that have ever been subject to LCT Fossil fuel-powered cars PHEVs purchased after 1 April 2025 Financial Advantages Tax Savings Scale with Income The higher your taxable income, the greater your potential savings. Employees on higher tax brackets can save more because their lease payments reduce taxable income at a higher marginal tax rate. Important: These savings include registration, insurance, servicing, and tyre costs but exclude home charging costs, which remain a grey area for tax reimbursements. Novated Lease vs. Traditional Financing: Which is Better? Novated Lease Benefits: Fixed interest rate for the lease term. Pre-tax salary deductions. Access to fleet discounts. Save on GST (up to $6,334) Running costs are bundled into one payment. You don't end up owning the vehicle outright, but you can often purchase it at the end of the lease term for a residual payment. Traditional Loan Drawbacks: Potentially variable interest rates. No tax benefits on repayments. Running costs are separate and fully post-tax. But you do own the vehicle outright, which may be preferable for some. What Happens If You Change Employers? Option 1: Transfer the lease to your new employer (if they agree). Option 2: Continue making payments directly to the lease provider from post-tax income. Option 3: Sell the vehicle to cover outstanding payments. Consider Lease Protection Insurance to safeguard your payments in the event of involuntary redundancy or other disruptions. Other Tax Implications to Watch Although you won’t pay FBT on qualifying EVs, the benefit must still be reported on your income statement. This can impact: Private health insurance rebate eligibility Parental leave payments Childcare subsidies HECS/HELP repayments Medicare levy obligations It’s essential to consult a tax advisor to understand how a novated lease might affect your overall tax position. Conclusion The Fringe Benefits Tax exemption on electric vehicles is a powerful incentive that can significantly reduce the cost of EV ownership—especially when leveraged through a novated lease. However, it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Employees must weigh the immediate tax savings against long-term considerations like changing jobs, residual lease payments, and potential impacts on other financial entitlements. For many Australians, this policy represents a pivotal moment to make the switch to electric, but it’s crucial to fully understand the mechanics, eligibility, and possible flow-on effects before signing the dotted line. References ATO: Electric cars FBT exemption Novated Lease Australia - electric cars Oly Novated Lease - electric cars Oly Novated lease: everything you need to know before you switch FAQs Q: Can I get the FBT exemption if I buy an EV with cash or a personal loan? No. The exemption only applies if you finance the vehicle through a novated lease. Q: Do used EVs qualify for the exemption? Yes, provided they were purchased on or after 1 July 2022 and have never attracted Luxury Car Tax. Q: What happens at the end of the novated lease? You may need to make a residual payment (often around 37.5% of the vehicle’s original purchase price) or refinance the remaining amount. Q: Will my FBT-exempt EV affect my eligibility for government benefits? Yes, the reportable benefit can influence entitlements like childcare subsidies, HECS repayments, and Medicare levy calculations. Q: Can I include optional extras in the vehicle purchase? Yes, but ensure that the total cost, including extras, does not exceed the Luxury Car Tax threshold to remain eligible for the exemption.41:["$","$L30","at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xuec6cvv",{"publication":{"href":"https://electricvehicle.life","pubRecord":{"url":"https://electricvehicle.life","icon":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreibdkzd5k7j4ocovrr32htzuxmqpeswrpt4pu5sezd5hcj2bu3mbam"},"size":37818,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/png"},"name":"EV Life","$type":"site.standard.publication","basicTheme":{"$type":"site.standard.theme.basic","accent":{"b":22,"g":188,"r":253,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"background":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"foreground":{"b":43,"g":32,"r":27,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"accentForeground":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"}},"description":"An Electric Vehicle 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benefits.","publishedAt":"2025-05-20T00:00:00.000Z","textContent":"$53","theme":"$undefined","preferences":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xuec6cvv","sort_date":"2025-05-20T00:00:00+00:00"}}] 42:["$","$L30","at://did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6/site.standard.document/3mnfujpsb2j2f",{"publication":{"href":"https://michaelband.com","pubRecord":{"url":"https://michaelband.com","icon":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreid4opxcrj4ukwfrquwox3jc62oxi73xso32ja3nrorgx7xkwoerbm"},"size":54108,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/png"},"name":"michaelband.com","$type":"site.standard.publication","createdAt":"2026-06-03T19:13:21.517Z","preferences":{"showComments":true,"showMentions":true,"showPrevNext":false,"showInDiscover":true,"showRecommends":true},"theme":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6/site.standard.publication/3mnfswdfcx42p"},"ownerDid":"@michaelband.com","contributors":[{"did":"did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6","handle":"michaelband.com","displayName":"Michael Band"}],"documents":{"comments_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"document_mentions_in_bsky":[{"count":0}],"recommends_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"data":{"path":"/blog/posts/global-entry-completed","site":"at://did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6/site.standard.publication/3mnfswdfcx42p","tags":["USA","global entry","australia","travel"],"$type":"site.standard.document","title":"Successfully Approved for Global Entry as an Australian!","coverImage":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreib6lgeyb2tryx34ug6ncbxgd6aht5ueek2pxfvmbkxyclhrdkmgg4"},"size":56823,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/jpeg"},"description":"How my Global Entry interview and enrollment on arrival went as an Australian, from LAX customs to final Trusted Traveler approval.","publishedAt":"2025-04-16T00:00:00.000Z","textContent":"How my Global Entry interview and enrollment on arrival went as an Australian, from LAX customs to final Trusted Traveler approval.","canonicalUrl":"https://michaelband.com/blog/posts/global-entry-completed","theme":"$undefined","preferences":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6/site.standard.document/3mnfujpsb2j2f","sort_date":"2025-04-16T00:00:00+00:00"}}] 43:["$","$L30","at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xsmuqcrh",{"publication":{"href":"https://electricvehicle.life","pubRecord":{"url":"https://electricvehicle.life","icon":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreibdkzd5k7j4ocovrr32htzuxmqpeswrpt4pu5sezd5hcj2bu3mbam"},"size":37818,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/png"},"name":"EV Life","$type":"site.standard.publication","basicTheme":{"$type":"site.standard.theme.basic","accent":{"b":22,"g":188,"r":253,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"background":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"foreground":{"b":43,"g":32,"r":27,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"accentForeground":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"}},"description":"An Electric Vehicle Life","theme":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self"},"ownerDid":"@electricvehicle.life","contributors":[{"did":"did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor","handle":"electricvehicle.life","displayName":"🅴🆅 Life"}],"documents":{"comments_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"document_mentions_in_bsky":[{"count":0}],"recommends_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"data":{"path":"/posts/everything-electric-sydney-2025/","site":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self","tags":["events","community","australia","home-energy"],"$type":"site.standard.document","title":"Everything Electric Sydney 2025","updatedAt":"2026-08-08T02:36:10.415Z","description":"Three days of electric vehicles, solar power, batteries, and charging infrastructure.","publishedAt":"2025-03-06T23:12:26.000Z","textContent":"Everything Electric at the Sydney Showground in Sydney Olympic Park\nVisited first day Friday (only) of the three-day event. \nTalks wise, same discussions as previous years (see Everything Electric Australia 2024 and the original Fully Charged Live Sydney in 2023), but the exhibition was more interesting with lots more vendors and products. \nLots of new Chinese EV brands. In addition to BYD and MG we already know well, there were Geely and Zeekr, Leapmotor (joint venture with Stelantis), Deepal, and XPeng, which to be honest were all quite impressive, compared to, for example, the VW models on display. \nTest drove an electric Mini (had a Mini D some 10 or so years ago), which had an annoying fake sound which can only be turned off in eco mode?\nFirst time T*sla was present, with a large booth, with the new MY and the truly ridiculous CT.\n![](/images/posts/everythingelectric2025.jpg) \nAs always, find my photo album on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/halans/albums/72177720324312978","theme":"$undefined","preferences":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xsmuqcrh","sort_date":"2025-03-06T23:12:26+00:00"}}] 44:["$","$L30","at://did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6/site.standard.document/3mnfujqtfna2p",{"publication":{"href":"https://michaelband.com","pubRecord":{"url":"https://michaelband.com","icon":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreid4opxcrj4ukwfrquwox3jc62oxi73xso32ja3nrorgx7xkwoerbm"},"size":54108,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/png"},"name":"michaelband.com","$type":"site.standard.publication","createdAt":"2026-06-03T19:13:21.517Z","preferences":{"showComments":true,"showMentions":true,"showPrevNext":false,"showInDiscover":true,"showRecommends":true},"theme":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6/site.standard.publication/3mnfswdfcx42p"},"ownerDid":"@michaelband.com","contributors":[{"did":"did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6","handle":"michaelband.com","displayName":"Michael Band"}],"documents":{"comments_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"document_mentions_in_bsky":[{"count":0}],"recommends_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"data":{"path":"/blog/posts/conditionally-approved-for-global-entry","site":"at://did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6/site.standard.publication/3mnfswdfcx42p","tags":["USA","global entry","australia","Airports"],"$type":"site.standard.document","title":"Conditionally approved for Global Entry","coverImage":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreih2m5hsosq7h2uaf5ajskle3qhl2sj3nvwhh5lroivm25nx52hys4"},"size":38449,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/jpeg"},"description":"I received conditional approval for Global Entry into the United States","publishedAt":"2025-01-31T00:00:00.000Z","textContent":"I received conditional approval for Global Entry into the United States","canonicalUrl":"https://michaelband.com/blog/posts/conditionally-approved-for-global-entry","theme":"$undefined","preferences":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6/site.standard.document/3mnfujqtfna2p","sort_date":"2025-01-31T00:00:00+00:00"}}] 45:["$","$L30","at://did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6/site.standard.document/3mnfujrxky723",{"publication":{"href":"https://michaelband.com","pubRecord":{"url":"https://michaelband.com","icon":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreid4opxcrj4ukwfrquwox3jc62oxi73xso32ja3nrorgx7xkwoerbm"},"size":54108,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/png"},"name":"michaelband.com","$type":"site.standard.publication","createdAt":"2026-06-03T19:13:21.517Z","preferences":{"showComments":true,"showMentions":true,"showPrevNext":false,"showInDiscover":true,"showRecommends":true},"theme":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6/site.standard.publication/3mnfswdfcx42p"},"ownerDid":"@michaelband.com","contributors":[{"did":"did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6","handle":"michaelband.com","displayName":"Michael Band"}],"documents":{"comments_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"document_mentions_in_bsky":[{"count":0}],"recommends_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"data":{"path":"/blog/posts/global-entry-available-for-australians","site":"at://did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6/site.standard.publication/3mnfswdfcx42p","tags":["USA","global entry","australia","travel"],"$type":"site.standard.document","title":"Global Entry available for Australians","coverImage":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreigg2otzou32jssjo4c2cmhukpszqdzem46d4fq4u3dsfjzvdwilru"},"size":41110,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/jpeg"},"description":"Global Entry for quicker access through customs when entering the USA is available for Australians now","publishedAt":"2025-01-18T00:00:00.000Z","textContent":"Global Entry for quicker access through customs when entering the USA is available for Australians now","canonicalUrl":"https://michaelband.com/blog/posts/global-entry-available-for-australians","theme":"$undefined","preferences":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:4n6epn4jg6s2z3qsjmrf7vh6/site.standard.document/3mnfujrxky723","sort_date":"2025-01-18T00:00:00+00:00"}}] 54:Ta3b,3-day Everything Electric weekend ![](/images/posts/EverythingElectric01.jpg) "Everything Electric Australia" in Sydney Olympic Park is an evolution of last year's Fully Charged Live Darling Harbour show, continued its focus on battery electric vehicles (BEVs) as well as home energy technologies, now on a larger scale. The event, sponsored by companies like Polestar, NRMA, Origin Energy, the NSW Government and many others, featured about 80 exhibitors and aimed to encourage the adoption of cleaner technologies as well address psychological barriers to BEV adoption. Visitors could test-drive a variety of BEVs, including models from Polestar, Audi, Hyundai, BMW, and many others. It's a unique opportunity for Australians to compare and test-drive different models in one place. Beyond mainstream automakers, the exhibition showcased BEV conversions of classic vehicles and light commercial vehicles. E-motorcycles were represented by local manufacturers like Savic Motorcycles and Zero Motorcycles, with a notable presence of e-bikes as well. Charging infrastructure companies, solar race car displays, and electric (induction) cooking were also featured. The event included on-stage presentations (of varying quality) by industry experts, and YouTube personalities, covering various BEV-related topics, along with 50 live sessions discussing subjects like BEV myth-busting and reducing carbon emissions. I went Friday (only) though had planned to maybe go for two of the three days, but to be honest, the panel disccussions were not that interesting (having a YT channel doesn't turn you into a battery chemistry scientist). It would be better to have two people on your panel discussion who actually know what they are talking about, than having another two present who waffle about and suck up all oxygen in the room. I had seen most of the cars before. Except the electric Lotus (a Volvo cousin), and electric Polaris. I test drove a BMW i4, just to compare against my Volvo, and that interior is just not for me. Also way too many buttons. Like, a P button and a P lever? A stop/start button? And then those screen graphics. Meh. What I did love was Peugeot's e-3008 instrument cluster layered graphics, that looked really neat and modern and not like a 90s video game on the BMW. ![](/images/posts/EverythingElectric02.jpg) ![](/images/posts/EverythingElectric03.jpg) ![](/images/posts/EverythingElectric04.jpg) Check out the full Flickr album. See also Everything Electric Sydney 2025 for the next year's show. 46:["$","$L30","at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xshjtkpr",{"publication":{"href":"https://electricvehicle.life","pubRecord":{"url":"https://electricvehicle.life","icon":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreibdkzd5k7j4ocovrr32htzuxmqpeswrpt4pu5sezd5hcj2bu3mbam"},"size":37818,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/png"},"name":"EV Life","$type":"site.standard.publication","basicTheme":{"$type":"site.standard.theme.basic","accent":{"b":22,"g":188,"r":253,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"background":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"foreground":{"b":43,"g":32,"r":27,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"accentForeground":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"}},"description":"An Electric Vehicle Life","theme":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self"},"ownerDid":"@electricvehicle.life","contributors":[{"did":"did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor","handle":"electricvehicle.life","displayName":"🅴🆅 Life"}],"documents":{"comments_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"document_mentions_in_bsky":[{"count":0}],"recommends_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"data":{"path":"/posts/everything-electric-australia/","site":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self","tags":["events","community","australia","home-energy"],"$type":"site.standard.document","title":"Everything Electric Sydney 2024","updatedAt":"2026-08-08T02:36:10.229Z","description":"Everything Electric Australia Expo in Sydney Olympic Park","publishedAt":"2024-02-09T00:00:00.000Z","textContent":"$54","theme":"$undefined","preferences":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xshjtkpr","sort_date":"2024-02-09T00:00:00+00:00"}}] 47:["$","$L30","at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xsxilcns",{"publication":{"href":"https://electricvehicle.life","pubRecord":{"url":"https://electricvehicle.life","icon":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreibdkzd5k7j4ocovrr32htzuxmqpeswrpt4pu5sezd5hcj2bu3mbam"},"size":37818,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/png"},"name":"EV Life","$type":"site.standard.publication","basicTheme":{"$type":"site.standard.theme.basic","accent":{"b":22,"g":188,"r":253,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"background":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"foreground":{"b":43,"g":32,"r":27,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"accentForeground":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"}},"description":"An Electric Vehicle Life","theme":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self"},"ownerDid":"@electricvehicle.life","contributors":[{"did":"did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor","handle":"electricvehicle.life","displayName":"🅴🆅 Life"}],"documents":{"comments_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"document_mentions_in_bsky":[{"count":0}],"recommends_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"data":{"path":"/posts/fully-charged-live-sydney/","site":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self","tags":["events","community","australia"],"$type":"site.standard.document","title":"Fully Charged Live Sydney","updatedAt":"2026-08-08T02:36:11.111Z","description":"Volunteer photographer for the weekend","publishedAt":"2023-03-11T00:00:00.000Z","textContent":"Event Photography\nI contacted the crew and I voluntered for the Fully Charged Live Sydney show, on this weekend. \nMet Robert and Jack, working along the rest of the crew. \nThey took a chance on me, and I'm grateful for the opportunity. \nThey were pretty happy with the results, which seemed to have exceeded their expectations :-)\nCheck out the Flickr album.\nThe Fully Charged Live show was renamed and rebooted in 2024 as Everything Electric Australia, and again in 2025 as Everything Electric Sydney.\n{{/ < video library=\"1\" sre=\"EverythingElectricAU.mp4\" controls=\"yes\" > /}}","theme":"$undefined","preferences":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xsxilcns","sort_date":"2023-03-11T00:00:00+00:00"}}] 55:T625,Powerpole charging Last week Ausgrid, EVX and the Newcastle city council opened up their first power pole mounted 11kWh EV charger at Dixon Park beach, with an aim to deliver up to 30.000 pole mounted EV chargers across the Ausgrid network by 2029. (which means Ausgrid would be installing 13 chargers each day for the next 6 years...) These pole-mounted chargers will help to address EV accessibility by providing chargers for people without home systems, and those traveling outside of their local areas. Ausgrid CEO, Richard Gross. Dixon Park beach is a great first location, and I'd love to see each beach side community get some of these (wink wink Bateau Bay, Long Jetty, The Entrance, Central Coast). You do need to download EVX app to activate the charger. Charging costs $0.50 per kWh flat rate. Thoughts :zap: Can the community have a say in where we'd like to see these pole mounted chargers? > YES Submit here: https://evx.tech/polecharger-request-form/ Potential trip hazard with cables laying around the ground? $0.50 per kWh is a lot for a slow 11kWh charge. Will there be different tiers, time-of-day pricing with cheaper options? Cheaper overnight charging for locals, premium daytime charging for visitors? Cheaper prepaid plans? No mention of any idle fees. Yet another app. Often these apps forget about your payment details everytime an app update happens. Then you open the app, and you can't charge as you need to provide your CC details again. Let us just pay with contactless, just tap and be done with like at the petrol station. 48:["$","$L30","at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xsrzrkpr",{"publication":{"href":"https://electricvehicle.life","pubRecord":{"url":"https://electricvehicle.life","icon":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreibdkzd5k7j4ocovrr32htzuxmqpeswrpt4pu5sezd5hcj2bu3mbam"},"size":37818,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/png"},"name":"EV Life","$type":"site.standard.publication","basicTheme":{"$type":"site.standard.theme.basic","accent":{"b":22,"g":188,"r":253,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"background":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"foreground":{"b":43,"g":32,"r":27,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"accentForeground":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"}},"description":"An Electric Vehicle Life","theme":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self"},"ownerDid":"@electricvehicle.life","contributors":[{"did":"did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor","handle":"electricvehicle.life","displayName":"🅴🆅 Life"}],"documents":{"comments_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"document_mentions_in_bsky":[{"count":0}],"recommends_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"data":{"path":"/posts/evx-power-pole-charger/","site":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self","tags":["charging","charging-infrastructure","nsw","australia"],"$type":"site.standard.document","title":"Pole EV Charger","updatedAt":"2026-08-08T02:36:10.769Z","description":"Ausgrid installs EVX power pole mounted EV charger in Newcastle","publishedAt":"2022-12-26T00:00:00.000Z","textContent":"$55","theme":"$undefined","preferences":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xsrzrkpr","sort_date":"2022-12-26T00:00:00+00:00"}}] 49:["$","$L30","at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xwmqjslo",{"publication":{"href":"https://electricvehicle.life","pubRecord":{"url":"https://electricvehicle.life","icon":{"ref":{"$link":"bafkreibdkzd5k7j4ocovrr32htzuxmqpeswrpt4pu5sezd5hcj2bu3mbam"},"size":37818,"$type":"blob","mimeType":"image/png"},"name":"EV Life","$type":"site.standard.publication","basicTheme":{"$type":"site.standard.theme.basic","accent":{"b":22,"g":188,"r":253,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"background":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"foreground":{"b":43,"g":32,"r":27,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"},"accentForeground":{"b":255,"g":255,"r":255,"$type":"site.standard.theme.color#rgb"}},"description":"An Electric Vehicle Life","theme":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self"},"ownerDid":"@electricvehicle.life","contributors":[{"did":"did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor","handle":"electricvehicle.life","displayName":"🅴🆅 Life"}],"documents":{"comments_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"document_mentions_in_bsky":[{"count":0}],"recommends_on_documents":[{"count":0}],"data":{"path":"/posts/soo-many-apps/","site":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.publication/self","tags":["charging","charging-apps","trip-planning","australia"],"$type":"site.standard.document","title":"Apps","updatedAt":"2026-08-08T02:36:17.114Z","description":"Trying to keep track of all the EV charging apps","publishedAt":"2022-01-29T00:00:00.000Z","textContent":"Every EV charging service comes with its own charging app.\nTrying to keep track of all the EV charging apps, and/or RFID cards:\nChargefox\nEverty\nEvie\nJolt\neoApp\nGET Electric\nExploren\nAmpCharge\nbp pulse\nEVX\nTesla Superchargers\n(updating whenever I find a new one)\nOften, when these apps update, you're logged out, or sometimes it even loses your account details alltogether (while it really shouldn't),\nand you need to log in or set up your account again, while all you want to do is just plug in. Frustrating. I'd rather tap-to-pay.\nI like to grab an RFID card and link it to the account, so next time I don't need to use the app, and can just tap the RFID card to start charging, more quickly.","theme":"$undefined","preferences":"$undefined"},"uri":"at://did:plc:obohsooecdpsocvb3vw2buor/site.standard.document/3mry2xwmqjslo","sort_date":"2022-01-29T00:00:00+00:00"}}] 56:T1215,Australian Rules Nintendo What an Australia-only NES game secretly reveals about many of the early Nintendo games that came out in the United States. Recently I found myself hanging out in a retro video game store, looking at the cheapo bin at the various titles for the NES and other systems. If you’ve done something similar in the recent past, you’ll know that the cheapo bin will inevitably be filled with lots of sports games. It doesn’t matter if the sports games are well-regarded or even iconic—for whatever reason gamers just don’t want to buy them. One game that certainly won’t run into that fate is International Cricket, one of just two, maybe three, NES games to be released only in Australia. (Which, for sake of technical knowledge, used the PAL television standard, unlike the NTSC standard common in the U.S. and Japan.) For licensed titles, it’s an extreme rarity for a retro game to be localized to a single country that isn’t the U.S. or Japan. Due to that factor alone, it’s unlikely to fall into the cheapo bin anytime soon. Games that are released to limited markets, generally those targeted at PAL television sets, tend to be the ones that go for the highest prices outside of the U.S. and Japan. For example, the most expensive PAL game for the NES, according to Price Charting, is Mr. Gimmick, a Sunsoft game that only saw release in Japan and, for some reason, Scandinavia. Coming out late in the console’s history and only appearing in a few parts of the world is a great way to ensure that a game costs a lot of money. But what about International Cricket? That must have been a failure and a rarity, right? Well, it turns out that it it’s actually a relatively cheap cartridge considering the fact it only came out in Australia. It runs roughly in the middle of Price Charting’s PAL charts, at a price of $20.75 unboxed and $99.25 complete in box—far above the price totals of similar sports games like Double Dribble, Super Spike Volleyball, and Jack Nicklaus Golf. On eBay’s Australian site, you can find complete boxed copies for as low as $45 Australian ($35 in American dollars). The reason for that is that the game was a sizable hit in Australia, the product of a local developer that knew its audience. A 1992 article for The Age featured a profile on Beam Software, the development house behind the game and another Australian-only title, Aussie Rules Footy. “Beam Software is unique in its position in Australia,” noted the newspaper’s Lee Perkins. “There are no other local companies supplying the console market to any significant degree, although this situation may change as the economy achieves some measure of stability.” Surprisingly, the Melbourne-based company gained a masterful reputation of developing games specifically for other countries, many of which were based on American pop-culture properties. For the NES alone, the company developed games based on Star Wars, Back to the Future, The Three Stooges, American athlete Bo Jackson, and Fischer-Price toys. The company developed a shocking 29 games for the NES or Famicom, a massive number considering the fact that just over 700 licensed games came out for the console in the U.S. and Europe. And most of its games did not actually get released in Australia—so it put the developer in the odd position of importing pop culture from halfway around the world, then turning those properties into games that would never actually be seen by the people that live in its own country. The company was a go-to developer for American pop culture. Considering that, it was only fair that the developer threw its own country a bone; Aussie Rules Football and International Cricket each topped the Australian sales charts, a not-insignificant feat as the country was a major market for the NES and outpaced its success in many European countries. Perhaps the company’s best-known game today is Shadowrun, the Super NES adaptation of a popular tabletop RPG that became hugely influential in the years after its release. While Beam nor any corporate descendants are active today—the developer was the victim of merger-mania around 2000—the company likely helped set the stage for what has become a more than $3 billion industry in the country. Case in point: Some of the most popular mobile games of the past few years, like Crossy Road and Fruit Ninja, were products of Australian developers. Yes, it’s ironic that a title named International Cricket* was only released in Australia. 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