Working families in outer suburbs were most likely to be deterred from buying an EV by a road-user charge, a study has found, while retirees were among the least affected.
The Electric Vehicle Council released the findings on Wednesday from a survey of more than 3600 drivers designed to analyse the impact of removing incentives from their purchase and adding charges.
The research comes after Australian motorists set a record by purchasing more than 15,800 new electric vehicles in March, fuelled by petrol and diesel price hikes and shortages.
The study, conducted by University of Sydney honorary professor Simon Jackman, surveyed drivers about their intention to purchase an electric vehicle and asked them to estimate their annual driving distance.
Researchers estimated each participant's annual road-user charge based on the NSW government's proposal to charge three cents for each kilometre.
Most households would be charged between $300 and $500 under the scheme, the study found, with the average charge $353 per year.
The charge would dissuade almost one in three likely electric car buyers (28 per cent), Prof Jackman said, with price-sensitive households the most affected.
"The real impact tends to be concentrated on what I would call mid to outer suburban Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane," he told AAP.
"That's the population that's right on the margin and don't need much dissuasion before the EV proposition starts looking less viable."
A road-user charge would hit working families with drivers between 33 and 55 years the most, the study found, and blue-collar rather than professional communities.
Many participants acknowledged electric vehicle drivers should pay to maintain road networks, Prof Jackman said, but questioned its size and timing.
"It won't raise a lot of revenue, to be honest, but it threatens to throttle down adoption rates," he said.
"EV drivers should be contributing something but maybe let's understand what the levels might be given what the data tells us about heightened price sensitivity in this next segment of would-be adopters."
Treasurer Jim Chalmers revealed he would consider a road-user charge to ensure "more equitable treatment across vehicle types," and the NSW government proposed its road-user charge for 2027.
But Jim Purcival, who has rented two electric vehicles for his family, said one of their biggest selling points was fuel savings.
The NSW energy worker initially replaced his car with an electric Volvo XC30 to save on fuel costs during his 140km commute, and has since traded it for an electric Kia EV9 van.
"Back then, I was saving heaps – $100 a week," he said.
"Now we're essentially charging off solar and it works really well for us."
