By Abi — Melbourne car owner, Defender P400S driver, accidental solar investor | June 2026
My June electricity bill arrived last week. My solar panels had exported 230 kilowatt-hours to the grid. Origin's payment to me: $2.30. One cent per kilowatt-hour. I installed those panels in 2021 for $10,000 when the feed-in tariff was heading toward 8 cents.
That $2.30 is the number I keep coming back to when someone tells me I should buy an EV and charge it from solar for free.
I'm not anti-EV. I want to be clear about that. I spent months seriously researching them before buying my Land Rover Defender P400S. I configured a Tesla. I test drove the Kia EV9. I built a spreadsheet comparing running costs. I was genuinely open to it. Here's what the honest research showed me.
Finding 1: The Running Costs Are Better for EVs — But Not by as Much as You Think
On fuel and servicing, EVs win clearly. A petrol SUV doing 15,000 km a year costs around $3,600 in fuel. An equivalent EV costs around $1,000 in home charging. EV servicing runs $200–$350 a year versus $700–$1,200 for a petrol equivalent. That's a real saving.
But then comes insurance. The average EV comprehensive premium in Australia in 2026 is $2,545 per year — 49% higher than the $1,702 average for equivalent petrol cars, according to CHOICE research from January 2026. Battery repairs can cost $15,000–$40,000. The approved repair network is still narrow. That insurance gap eats into the fuel saving, especially at lower annual kilometres.
I built an interactive calculator that lets you put in your own numbers — km driven, charging rate, solar feed-in tariff, insurance, servicing — and see your actual annual running cost difference. The full breakdown and calculator are on Gadgets & Wheels here.
Finding 2: The Solar Charging Story Doesn't Work the Way People Think
Here's the Victorian solar feed-in tariff history, as set by the Essential Services Commission: 10.2c/kWh in 2020–21. Then 6.7c. Then 5.2c. Then 4.9c. Then 3.3c. From July 2025, the ESC deregulated minimum rates entirely — effectively setting them at near zero. My Origin plan now pays 1c/kWh.
If your solar exports at 1c during the day and you charge your EV at night at 24.5c grid rate, you are not charging from solar. You are buying grid power and being paid almost nothing for what you generate. The gap is 23.5 cents per unit — every unit.
The fix people suggest: add a home battery. A quality 10–13 kWh battery costs $12,000–$18,000 installed in Melbourne. Amortised over 10 years that's $1,200–$1,800 per year — and the battery itself may need replacement at the end of that window. I put those numbers into the calculator. For my situation, the maths doesn't close.
I wrote about why neither of my two cars is electric — including the full breakdown of the Q2 vs BYD Atto 3 running cost comparison where the EV actually wins — in this post on Gadgets & Wheels.
Finding 3: There Are Questions Nobody in the EV Industry Is Answering
Where do the batteries go? Australia has no mature EV battery recycling infrastructure. ScienceDirect modelling from April 2026 suggests annual EV battery waste could reach 500,000–900,000 tonnes per year by 2050. Right now there are only a handful of small-scale recyclers in Australia.
What does a 2024 BYD in 2034 look like in regional Victoria? Who fixes it? Is the service network there? These aren't reasons not to buy an EV — they're questions worth asking before a long-term ownership commitment.
And the longevity argument: a 1970 Ford Mustang is still on the road in 2026. Fixable, rebuildable, worth more than the day it left the factory. A 2024 EV with a degraded battery in 2034 — what is it worth? This is a values question as much as a financial one.
I wrote up all six of these questions honestly — with the counter-arguments included — in this post on Gadgets & Wheels.
So Should You Buy an EV in Australia in 2026?
Probably yes — if you drive 15,000+ km a year in metro Melbourne, charge at home overnight, and you're buying new with access to the FBT exemption through a novated lease. The running cost savings are real in that scenario.
Maybe not — if you drive under 12,000 km a year, you're relying on solar charging without a home battery, you need genuine off-road capability, or you regularly drive regional routes where DC charging is still patchy.
The honest answer depends entirely on your situation. That's why I built the calculator — so you can put in your own numbers and see your own result, rather than relying on someone else's best-case scenario.
Gadgets & Wheels — Full EV Research
Three posts, one interactive calculator, real Australian numbers:
Abi is a Melbourne-based tech reviewer and car enthusiast. He writes about cars, tech, and honest product research at gadgetsandwheels.com. Follow on X: @Abigadgets