Rationale

If everyone is to play their part in reducing emissions, then each of us needs to look at the emissions our choice of vehicle causes. When you buy a vehicle, you are locking in your emissions for 10-15 years or more. So, you should be looking at EVs now, not 5-10 years into the future.
It is simpler and less expensive than you may think.

Cost

Yes, you will pay a purchase premium for an EV but that cost will be offset by the savings in buying fuel. An EV uses about twice as many kilowatts of electricity per 100km as an equivalent car uses litres of fuel per 100km. But electricity costs far less than petrol or diesel fuel, so you can save around $1,300 per year for every 10,000km you drive (see below).

For 25,000km driven per year, that will finance an extra 25% of the purchase price so it can just about pay for itself as well as helping the planet, which will also make you feel good!

Range

Real-world ranges (ie using the airconditioner) are typically 300-350km, more than enough for everyday driving. That means you need to plan longer trips (see below).

Finding Chargers

Your vehicle will come with a portable charger that lets you recharge from a 240V socket, adding 10-15 km per hour of charging. So, a handy overnight option wherever you are.

Home chargers ($800-1000 for 7Kw) will add 30-40 km per hour of charging so buy one for home.

Public chargers (see below) are increasingly 50Kw to 350Kw although they often don't deliver peak load due to other vehicles charging at the same site. You will need to sign up (no cost) to several suppliers like Evie, ChargeFox and BP Pulse to be able to use them. Think of it as needing to have a fuel card for a brand before you could use any of that brand's service stations.

Costs To Charge

Home solar charging with current solar feed-in tariffs will cost you around $1.00 per 100km!

Home mains charging at around $0.35/KWh will cost you around $7.00 per 100km.

Public charging at typical rates of $0.45-$0.60/KWh will cost you $9-12.00 per 100km.

It doesn't take much effort to achieve about 80% of your charging at home (solar or mains) which will give you an average annual cost $5-7.00 per 100km.

Planning trips

Plugshare is a free universal "find me a charger" app that shows all chargers on a map, including status and ratings. You can plan trips and show chargers within a certain distance of your route.

Hybrids

Hybrid cars combine EV traction with an internal combustion engine. Conventional hybrids use braking to recharge the EV battery so it can use the EV side for the low-speed part of your driving but you cannot charge them directlty. They will reduce your fuel use but how much depends on your driving. Plug-chargeable hybrids can recharge from the mains but might have less than 100km  of EV range before you need to use the petrol engine. Still, 100km is more than enough for most of your daily driving. They are a good choice if you want don't want to go fully EV or you do a lot of long-distance driving.

Personal Observations

• Having to stop after 250km for 30-60 minutes to recharge opens up the chance to explore towns and take a decent break from driving or have something better to eat than road food.

• Smart councils (eg South Gippsland) realise that fast chargers mean more people come to and stop in their towns and spend, towns like Mirboo North, Meeniyan and Korumburra.

• Even remote trips like Heyfield-Omeo-Mt Hotham-Bright are comfortably completed with a small bit of planning.

• Last of all, everyone (including you) needs to be reducing their emissions by making good choices about how they travel. Saving the planet is not optional!