A Monash University study found the cost of electric vehicles and home energy technologies is limiting access for lower-income Australians. Just 4 per cent of people earning less than $40,000 a year said they were using or intended to own an EV, compared with 22 per cent of people earning more than $241,000 a year. Households earning under $80,000 were also more likely to say they had no intention of installing solar.
The Foresights for Future Australian Home Life report drew on 49 participants from a range of backgrounds across the country. Researchers spent three years examining how people’s homes, work patterns, cars and energy use may change.
The cost of the transition
One-quarter of participants said they couldn’t afford the costs of owning an electric vehicle, including purchase, maintenance and charger installation. About one-third of households that owned or planned to buy an EV or plug-in hybrid wanted affordable charging options, including solar power or off-peak electricity tariffs.
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 that year. The report shows adoption differs across income groups, while participants described the expense of vehicles and energy technologies as a barrier.
Liza, from Tasmania, said EVs were a great idea but “they’re so bloody expensive,” adding that buying a new electric car was financially out of reach for her. Wendy, from the ACT, said, “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, “We would love to charge at home. We don’t want to go outside and wait for hours.” He added, “It’s better to … if we have that, we’ll get it charged at home.” His comments reflect some households’ interest in charging at home, even as the report found affordability affects access to EVs and related technologies.
One in three homes in Australia has rooftop solar, and about 300,000 systems go in each year. Yet the survey found solar adoption increased with income. Some participants said they felt excluded from the energy transition, including EV and solar purchases, because the technologies seemed aimed at more affluent groups.
Homes shaped around work and care
Half of surveyed households had one member working from home at least once a week. Participants often viewed combining an office area with other parts of the home as a way to do more than one thing at once, including arranging work and childcare around each other.
Professor Sarah Pink, the lead researcher, 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 said new homes could instead use space more efficiently, with flexible areas or spatial separation for work alongside other household activities.
Kim said adaptable rooms or zones could offer visual and acoustic separation when needed, as well as daylight, ventilation, thermal comfort and access to power. Some people need privacy for concentration, meetings or confidential conversations; others work well in shared, open areas. In smaller homes, flexible spaces for living and working could be more practical than a dedicated office. Movable screens, curtains, compact furniture, storage and task lighting could create separation without adding another room.
Jane, from Victoria, said working from home meant she didn’t have to worry about traffic or a train being cancelled. She has a disability, she said, and public transport isn’t viable for her much of the time. Andrew, from South Australia, said working from home let him drop off and pick up his children, attend to things at home such as an electrician, and keep working without rescheduling his whole life.
Professor Pink said, “The cost-of-living crisis is an important dimension [in the energy transition].” She said one participant imagined possibly living in their car in the future rather than being able to purchase an electric vehicle.