Diesel 4WDs remain essential in outback amid lack of EV grunt, infrastructure

Australia Broadcast Center

29-04-2025

New South Wales livestock and property agent Troy Hartman knows firsthand how essential a four-wheel drive is on outback stations, particularly when it rains.
"If you had 10 millimetres [and] you jump in an old two-wheel drive, you'd probably slip all over the road and slide off it and get stuck," he said.
Farmers and graziers also rely on four-wheel drives to cart tools, motorbikes, fuel, hay and supplies.
Mr Hartman said hybrid or electric vehicles did not tend to come up in the national conversation about reducing carbon emissions because there were limited options.
Four-wheel drives are a must in tough outback conditions.
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ABC Broken Hill: Katherine Spackman
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"There's a few electric vehicles in town, I've noticed, but to have them out on a property — no doubt one day it will happen, but it's a little bit too early," he said.
He believed some hybrid vehicles could appeal to farmers.
"It was interesting to see the ad on TV [for a hybrid ute], where the farmer was in the paddock and he pulled up to do a bit of work on a strainer post on a gateway and he actually hooked up his electric welder to the vehicle to fix up a gate hinge, which I thought it was an interesting option," Mr Hartman said.
Outback hybrid sales strong
Broken Hill Motor Company general manager Liam Aitken said station workers tended to purchase Mazda BT50s or Toyota HiLuxes and LandCruisers.
"You're not going to see certain vehicles make a hybrid or a EV option because it's not going to be suitable to be able to tow that load, carry that load, travel that distance, or travel that type of terrain," he said.
Mr Aitken said hybrids accounted for about 40 per cent of business sales last year and that one EV was sold.
Liam Aitken says people in rural areas need to be looked after.
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ABC Broken Hill: Katherine Spackman
)
Toyota hybrids accounted for 51 per cent of national sales.
Mr Aitken supported the federal government's national vehicle emission scheme, which is due to come into place in July 2025, but said there needed to be a multi-pathway response.
The Coalition has promised to axe the vehicle efficiency standard if it wins the election.
"We are a big country and we need to make sure we look after our people in the rural areas," Mr Aitken said.
'Going to be very hard'
Broken Hill mechanic Matthew Gerrs believed charging infrastructure was the main thing holding back the transition to EVs.
"I think, probably, your biggest con would be your range reliability," he said.
"A lot of those farmers, they want to jump in a car and do 1,200 to 1,400 kilometres.
"It's going to be very hard to do that — obviously limited infrastructure, with a lack of charging stations … and then, obviously, the time that it takes to charge them."
Matthew Gerrs says four-wheel drive services make up the bulk of his work.
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ABC Broken Hill: Katherine Spackman
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Mr Gerrs's business employs 26 people in the workshop and on mine sites.
They mostly service four-wheel drives.
Mr Gerrs said station owners often held onto a vehicle until it reached 300-400,000km.
He has put his staff through an introductory course on safety in EV, but doubts it will come in handy anytime soon.
"I don't think that we'll see a lot of them through independent workshops for a long time," he said.
Infrastructure rollout woes
In Far West NSW, the NRMA has charging stations in Wilcannia and Broken Hill, but there are no plans to install more in other towns.
A NRMA spokesperson said it cost about $600,000 to build a charging site, but that was dependent on the "location and availability of energy".
"This figure could increase by a third or more depending on what is needed to solve those challenges at a local site," he said.
The NRMA's Broken Hill charging station opened in 2022.
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ABC Broken Hill: Jonathon Poulson
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Over the border in South Australia, the RAA has rolled out charging stations over the 500km between Broken Hill and Adelaide.
In 2023, it
"Unfortunately, Yunta has been removed from the scope of the network due to challenges associated with getting sufficient power to the site," head of EV charging Andrew Howard said.
"The RAA charge network now spans 143 sites, with over 550 plugs across the state — more than the original network scope — giving EV drivers more confidence to travel around regional SA than ever before."
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