![\"\u2018Panic](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/b59f3f6ad884ff39b0df0e8e8756b971.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nA\u00a0recent trip to the UK took me to the car park of a\u00a0regional\u00a0McDonalds.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
This\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0your typical Maccas.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Toffee lattes aside,\u00a0the\u00a0most peculiar\u00a0feature of this\u00a0practically\u00a0brand\u00a0new\u00a0site that caught my attention was the row of electric vehicle charging stations neatly laid out in the car park.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What a beautiful demonstration of the wonders of modern\u00a0civilisation,\u00a0engineering\u00a0and innovation, you might say.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Or is it? The fee to use one of these stations\u00a0to juice up\u00a0your sparkling,\u00a0heavily\u00a0taxpayer-subsidised\u00a0EVs\u00a0is\u00a0\u00a30.92 per kWh\u00a0(AUD$1.74 to you and me) during the morning rush hour period.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Most EVs available on the market right now use\u00a0about\u00a070 kWh to charge fully\u00a0–\u00a0ready to hit the road for\u00a0400km\u00a0or so, according to AGL and the Electric Vehicle\u00a0Council\u00a0respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That means\u00a0you\u2019d\u00a0be paying just under $122 to charge your average\u00a0electric car\u00a0at this Maccas charging station, which I now know is one of 250 sites across the UK and Ireland delivered in partnership with a leading electric vehicle charging network.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By comparison, back home in\u00a0Sydney\u00a0it costs\u00a0me\u00a0much\u00a0less than\u00a0half\u00a0of that \u2013\u00a0about $55\u00a0\u2013 to\u00a0gas up\u00a0my\u00a0little\u00a02012\u00a0Mazda 2\u00a0from close to empty\u00a0now\u00a0the worst of the Iran conflict\u00a0is over.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Granted,\u00a0EVs are cheaper\u00a0to\u00a0zap up\u00a0here:\u00a054c\u00a0per kWh for the fast chargers and\u00a059c for the\u00a0ultra-fast.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not to mention though the\u00a0entry-level\u00a0$30,000+\u00a0cost\u00a0for\u00a0this\u00a0holier-than-thou\u00a0hulk of metal and wire.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When\u00a0I\u00a0checked\u00a0this week, you\u00a0can\u00a0buy a\u00a0used 2020\u00a0Mazda\u00a0for less than $20,000\u00a0or a\u00a0used\u00a02013 Mazda 2 Neo Sport with just 81,000km on the clock\u00a0for\u00a0$12,990.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The cost of used\u00a0electric cars\u00a0meanwhile\u00a0has\u00a0exploded in recent months, with data from\u00a0AutoGrab\u00a0showing\u00a0a huge\u00a0price jump in\u00a02025-year\u00a0EVs\u00a0after the war in Iran broke out.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
No doubt driven\u00a0by cashed-up city types with too much discretionary spending at their mercy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This new world the European continent is forcing its residents to live in, courtesy of ultra-ambitious EU mandates and national governments driven by green guilt, is picking up pace in Australia too.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No\u00a0small\u00a0thanks to\u00a0Climate Change Minister\u00a0Chris Bowen,\u00a0who is\u00a0wielding the incredible power afforded to him by Labor\u2019s 94-seat supermajority\u00a0to\u00a0push this unaffordable technology on a\u00a0population\u00a0that is honestly\u00a0more than happy to\u00a0keep their petrol-powered car\u00a0running.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A recent survey of some 1,100\u00a0Aussies\u00a0conducted by Savvy\u2019s Australian EV Sentiments Survey found 28 per\u00a0cent of them would take a petrol or diesel-powered car over an electric vehicle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s\u00a0up from 16 per cent in 2023 and\u00a0just\u00a013 per cent back in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Only seven per cent of respondents said they already own an EV, with another 10 per cent\u00a0saying they plan\u00a0to buy one in the next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Electric](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/73f9246648c07323c2b8229b1828ddbb.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
I recently called up a novated leasing company\u00a0after seeing an advert that\u00a0told me\u00a0I could save tens of thousands of dollars\u00a0in tax\u00a0by\u00a0hiring out\u00a0an EV for a few years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And who do these\u00a0firms have to thank for being able to offer\u00a0such a lucrative incentive?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
You guessed it \u2013 the Honourable Chris Bowen, Minister for Climate Change and Energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The person at the other end of the phone quickly informed me\u00a0this benefit was thanks to the Fringe Benefits Tax\u00a0discount, which\u00a0allows\u00a0you to pay for your lease out of your pre-tax salary \u2013 thereby saving thousands of dollars\u00a0in your end-of-year tax return.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\u2018Completely](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/9abb00440c0f222f371f9e3adeacb9cd.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Get in now, he\u00a0told\u00a0me, as this benefit is only slated to run until\u00a031\u00a0March 2027.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In other words, the Albanese government wants you to\u00a0sign up to\u00a0their unachievable ideological\u00a0crusade\u00a0before it gets exposed as the\u00a0social and financial con that\u00a0so many of us see it to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a\u00a0glowing\u00a0release\u00a0last month,\u00a0Mr Bowen spoke\u00a0in\u00a0entirely\u00a0self-congratulatory\u00a0terms about strong EV take-up\u00a0in the outer suburbs, from Werribee to Kellyville.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No mention of the growing discontent and polarisation over the electric vehicle push.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\u2018Professor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5e8cd2fe35cafc4e9874d21517759b7f.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
For now,\u00a0the free market\u00a0still\u00a0exists\u00a0\u2013 sort of \u2013 yet to succumb to the\u00a0globalist desires of Canberra progressives and\u00a0their European mates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And I will continue to drive my little\u00a0petrol-powered car, encumbered as it is by failing electrics\u00a0and the wear and tear that comes with an aging car.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I encourage anyone\u00a0who\u2019s\u00a0my sort of age\u00a0and\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0earn astronomical amounts of money\u00a0working in fintech to do the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Charlie manages a team of commentators who contribute opinion content for SkyNews.com.au and is based at our Sydney bureau. He also works with Sky News\u2019 on-air hosts and reporters to make sure their exclusives and analysis feature prominently on the homepage.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A\u00a0recent trip to the UK took me to the car park of a\u00a0regional\u00a0McDonalds.\u00a0\u00a0 This\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0your typical Maccas.\u00a0\u00a0 Toffee lattes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":745443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,11214],"class_list":["post-745442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-electric-vehicles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}