A report from electreck.co says that “New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state and home to Sydney, has announced a massive new EV policy package with $500 million worth of tax exemptions, rebates, and new spending on chargers, along with traffic-avoidance perks.”
Some of the highlights:
New South Wales’ new incentive package, in contrast to their neighbors, takes a lot of the best EV incentive ideas from around the world and collects them all into one package. It’s expected to be fully implemented by September 1.
First, “stamp duty” will be relieved on any EV costing less than $78,000 AUD. Stamp duty is a tax collected on a new or used vehicle at purchase, in the amount of 3-5% (depending on purchase price).
The first 25,000 new EVs sold in the state will also receive a rebate of $3,000. This rebate only applies to cars under $68,000 AUD…
Beyond these consumer incentives, the NSW government will spend $171 million on charging infrastructure, primarily on DC fast charge stations, but also destination charging and public chargers on land owned by the NSW public transit agency. It will also spend more than $30 million on upgrading state government vehicles to electric.
Another big piece of news relates to a non-action the NSW government will take regarding road taxes for EVs. The NSW government had planned a road usage fee in the same amount as neighboring Victoria, at a rate of 2.5 cents per kilometer (~$330/yr for the average Australian vehicle, among the highest EV taxes in the world). But, unlike Victoria, NSW thankfully has decided not to implement that fee yet, delaying its implementation until either 2027 or when EVs make up 30% of new vehicle sales, whichever comes first. Currently, the rate is less than 1% in NSW.
Australia’s New South Wales puts neighboring Victoria to shame with huge new EV incentive package