Four per cent of Australians earning less than $40,000 a year say they own or intend to own an electric vehicle. Among those earning more than $241,000, the figure is 22 per cent. That gap sits at the center of a Monash University study on how Australians expect to live, work and use energy at home.
The Foresights for Future Australian Home Life report drew on 49 participants from a range of backgrounds across the country. It found households are folding work areas into other parts of the home, while cost keeps putting new energy technologies beyond many families’ reach.
The Price Tag
One-quarter of survey participants said they couldn't afford an EV. They pointed to the full bill: purchase, maintenance and charger installation. About one-third of households that own or plan to buy an EV or plug-in hybrid said they wanted affordable charging options, including solar power or off-peak electricity tariffs.
The market keeps moving. According to the Electric Vehicle Council, an electric vehicle was selling every 100 seconds in Australia, and EVs were projected to make up almost one-quarter of all new car sales. Buyers who can afford them are buying.
Liza, from Tasmania, called EVs a great idea but said “they're so bloody expensive.” A new electric car, she said, was financially out of reach. Wendy, from the ACT, put it more pointedly. “I feel like saying Canberra is the Tesla town … People here may be able to afford electric cars, but I don't know, well, I can't, but how are people going to afford these new technologies?”
Ravi, from Victoria, said his household would rather charge at home. “We would love to charge at home. We don't want to go outside and wait for hours.”
Rooftop Solar and the Income Divide
One in three Australian homes has rooftop solar, with about 300,000 systems installed annually. The survey found adoption rose with income. Households earning under $80,000 were more likely to say they had no intention of installing solar at all.
Some participants said they felt shut out of the energy transition, including EV and solar purchases, because the technologies seemed aimed at more affluent groups. “The cost-of-living crisis is an important dimension [in the energy transition],” lead researcher Professor Sarah Pink said. She added that one participant imagined possibly living in their car in the future rather than being able to buy an electric vehicle.
The Home Office Shift
Half of the surveyed households had at least one member working from home at least once a week. Participants often saw a home office combined with other parts of the house as a way to do more than one thing at once, fitting work and childcare around each other.
Jane, from Victoria, said working from home spares her worries about traffic or a cancelled train. She also has a disability, and public transport isn't viable for her much of the time. Andrew, from South Australia, said it let him drop off and pick up his children and deal with an electrician without rescheduling his whole life.
Professor Pink said people imagined their next home having more space for a dedicated work-from-home room. University of Sydney associate professor of building science Jungsoo Kim offered a leaner view. New homes, he said, could use space more efficiently, with flexible areas or spatial separation for working alongside other household activities.
Kim said adaptable rooms or zones could provide visual and acoustic separation, along with good daylight, ventilation, thermal comfort and access to power. Some people need privacy for concentration, meetings or confidential conversations, he said, while others work well in shared, open areas. In smaller homes, flexible spaces combining living and working could prove more practical than a dedicated office. Movable screens, curtains, compact furniture, good storage and task lighting could create separation without adding a room.
Why This Matters:
The study's figures show an energy transition moving fastest among higher earners, while lower-income households say they're priced out. For policymakers, that raises a budget question. Attempts to widen access through subsidies or mandates would carry a cost to taxpayers, and participants’ own words point to affordability, not enthusiasm, as the barrier. From a market perspective, demand for cheaper charging, off-peak tariffs and solar-backed options suggests consumers are signaling what they'll pay for. The home-office findings carry a similar lesson: families are finding practical, low-cost fixes on their own, from movable screens to flexible rooms, without waiting for a government program.