AS Australia’s fuel crisis deepens, the use of electric vehicles (EVs) has come to the fore.

Long-time environmental advocate Steve Gill of Bassendean has owned an EV since 2022 and spent much of that time spreading the word about the advantages of renewable energy and electric vehicles.

Mr Gill said he has been watching the dramatic price rises at the bowser over the past few weeks with a mixture of both shock and interest.

“These increases reinforce the fact that the more the fuel price goes up, the more attractive owning an EV becomes,” he said.

“In my experience, running an electric vehicle using public fast chargers costs only between half and two thirds the price of petrol, depending on the fuel price.

“If charging at home from solar it is almost free.”

Mr Gill said the other big advantage of owning an EV was the low carbon emissions.

“Its effect on global warming is much less than any oil-powered vehicle, including hybrids, even after accounting for the higher monetary and environmental costs of building the vehicle,” he said.

“The third major advantage is being able to plug in when I get home and set the timer to start either when the sun is shining (for solar), or when carbon emissions from the grid are lowest.”

Mr Gill recently returned from a trip to Albany that demonstrated the substantial savings.

“My Albany trip to see the Lighting the Sound light show was only a few weeks ago but the higher fuel prices were already coming into play,” he said.

“Using public chargers my wife and I covered the roughly 1136 km from Bassendean to Albany and back in the EV spending only about $125 on electricity charging.

“I worked out that the same distance in a petrol vehicle would have cost about $284 in fuel with petrol prices at approximately $2.5/l.”

Mr Gill is also a firm supporter of environmental causes, including the Cavalcade to Canberra held in August to September 2024 when he drove his BYD EV van as the WA support vehicle for Professor Neville Bruce.

“On the day after his 81st birthday, Prof Bruce rode his (non-electric) bicycle from Parliament House in Perth to Parliament House, Canberra, via Adelaide and Melbourne,” Mr Gill said.

He said the purpose of Cavalcade to Canberra was to take the message to our elected representatives about ‘No New Gas!’ and discourage the exploring and processing of new gas fields in culturally sensitive areas.

“Travelling on back roads where possible and staying in caravan parks, camping grounds and roadside rest areas, I spent three weeks in the van using available chargers.”

Mr Gill also recently completed a shorter trip to Dalwallinu, 230km north-east of Perth, to try out some of the Great Northern Highway electrification project running from Midland to Port Hedland, via the inland route.

This trip proved a bit more challenging with Mr Gill admitting that although some EVs were perfect for around town and well serviced areas, a short-range goods vehicle like his could face some ‘range anxiety’ when heading further afield.