<
https://thedriven.io/2026/04/17/bowen-says-australias-small-but-growing-fleet-of-evs-is-saving-15-million-litres-of-petrol-a-week/>
"Federal energy and climate minister says Australia’s fleet of electric
vehicles may be small – at least in global standards – but it is still saving
15 million litres of fuel per week.
Bowen made the observation while holding a press conference to discuss the
spectacular fire at the Viva Energy refinery at Corio, near Geelong in
Victoria, which will inevitably lead to lost production at the facility, at
least in the short term.
He said the uptake of EVs – which hit a record high of 14.5 per cent of new car
sales in March, partly as a response to the global fuel crisis – is helping
reduce demand pressure.
“Our EV uptake in Australia, our number of EVs in the fleet is relatively low
at the moment, high in sales terms but low as a percentage of the fleet,” he
said.
“It takes a long time. Even with the relatively low EV uptake we have, that’s
avoiding the use of 15 million litres a week of fuel. That’s a good thing.
That’s 15 million litres we have available for others. That’s part of it.
“Now, if we have higher EV sales and higher EV penetration and higher EV
percentages across the entire fleet, that figure will come down even more and
provide more fuel options for those for whom an EV is not a viable option just
right now.”
There are an estimated 410,000 EVs in Australia – making up less than 2 per
cent of the total car fleet of around 22 million. Bowen’s calculations of 15
million litres saved per week works out to about 36 litres per vehicle, which
sounds about right."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
