There's another simple reason as a parent why you wouldn't buy an EV

Just before the end of FY2024, my wife and I went for test drives in electric vehicles to replace the 10-year-old SUV we’d used to ferry two kids to schools, sports and holidays, often with friends and/or dog in the back.

We planned to downsize and go electric. Three Volvos on over 20 years, we decided to stick with the brand, which had released the Volvo EX30, a compact/crossover SUV made from recycled shampoo bottles, paperclips, or something like that (Volvo says 17% of the exterior steel and plastics are recycled, with 30% of interior décor parts using recycled plastic).

At $60,000, plus on roads, it was at least in our affordable range. State and federal government incentives added appeal.

We’ve always been a one car family, even if that did impose logistical challenges during the high school years. But now, one child is away at uni and the other, finishing her HSC this year, is headed down a similar path. The dog is getting on too, and doesn’t leap as enthusiastically as she once did.

And we were ready to start the paperwork for a new EV when an aside from the sales exec changed our plans.

Our children are both on their P plates for up to the next 3 years. Neither would be able to drive an EX30 under NSW law.

So we bought a bigger hybrid instead, except it’s such a dinky battery, I still haven’t figured out what it does. Volvo calls it a “mild hybrid”, which makes it sound like a car for ICE fans who don’t like too much chilli. And I’m still putting petrol in the car.

The rise of hybrids

Today the Australian Automobile Association released its quarterly Electric Vehicle Index revealing EVs sales dropped 25% in the September quarter, down from 8.1% of total sales in the quarter ending FY24 to 6.5%, the lowest level since 2022. Those figures sat amid a broader fall in vehicle sales, down 7.6% this quarter across all engine types (from 312,889 to 289,098). ICE (internal combustion engine) sales fell by 9.16%.

Rebates for electric car sales disappeared in every state and territory except Western Australia at the end of the financial year and the smallest drop in BEV sales for this quarter was in WA. Meanwhile hybrid vehicle sales increased Australia-wide by 3.33% (from 46,727 to 48,282). Hybrid’s market share rose from 14.93% to 16.7%, while plug-in hybrid car sales jumped by 56.6% from a lower base, with their market share up from 1.49% to 2.53% on the June quarter.

Some plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) are still eligible for fringe benefit tax cuts from the federal government until April 2025.

Medium SUVs – that was us in the June quarter – remain Australia’s most popular vehicle segment. In the September quarter, just over half (50.89%) of new vehicles sold in this category were ICE. Almost a third (32.24%) were hybrids; 8.53% were BEVs; and 8.34% were PHEVs. Of the 7,323 PHEVs sold in the September quarter, 6,096 (83.24%) were medium SUVs.

You can drill down into the numbers at the AAA EV Index online data dashboard if so inclined.

P plate confusion

Which brings me to why we bought a ‘mild’ hybrid amid the broader debate about range anxiety and the cost of EVs.

The rules around what EVs you can legally drive on your P plates are a mess, depending on what state or territory you live in.

Had we bought the Volvo EX30, our son, based in Canberra, could have driven it, but couldn’t leave the ACT. Cross the border into NSW in that car and he faced a $603 fine and the loss of 7 demerit points, aka his licence.

In the Northern Territory, Tasmania, Western Australia and ACT there are no EV restrictions for provisional drivers.

But it is an issue in the east coast states: NSW, Victoria and Queensland as well as South Australia.

The issue is the power-to-weight ratios. Because EVs can accelerate quickly, they’re viewed like you’re driving a Lamborghini or Ferrari.

The rule of thumb is a power-to-weight ratio greater than 130kW per tonne is a no-no. It started out as a concern about performance cars and now, in NSW, the list of banned EVs runs to nearly 500 (not that you have that many to choose from – that’s just the Transport for NSW list).

The result is you can get most BYD EVs (but not the Seal Premium), most MG EVs (not the MG4 XPower), and Hyundai Kia or Kona EVs, or a single-motor Polestar 2, but the Polestar 3 sits at 139.3kW/t, so that’s not an SUV for kids.

Teslas are out of the question, regardless of how you feel about Elon Musk, and even the SKODA Enyaq RS is banned, along with those dinky Smart EVs, but a $120,000, 3-tonne Kia EV9, which can still get you to 100km/h in 8.2 seconds with a single motor is ok, just the dual motor is bad.

I get that it’s probably not a good idea to put young men behind the wheel of cars that can accelerate to 100kmh in less than 5 seconds, like the Porsche Taycan, Audi e-tron or Mercedes EQS, as well as high performance ICE cars, but the Mini Countryman SE? (I drove a5 70s Mini Cooper to uni last century with a zippy 1275-CC engine).

To figure out if you can make your kids come pick you up in your EV after dinner with friends, check out the banned and allowed lists for each state here:

In NSW and Victoria, you can apply for an individual exemption, for a fee, here and here respectively, based on hardship or critical needs provisions.

And in Victoria, if your boss tells you to drive a banned car, which begs the question how can it be safe to use just because your employer says you have to for work?

Which is probably why parents are giving up and buying hybrids instead.