Dr Gail Broadbent will discuss various trends in the transition to electric vehicle passenger car fleets with examples from Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Gail will point out what they have done to speed up the transition. While gender is one factor affecting uptake, a person’s age, education and willingness to change are also important indicators of likelihood of buying an electric car as is the financial capacity to do so. The importance of the implementation of government policies to help rather than hinder uptake will also be covered.

Biography

Gail Broadbent is an adjunct fellow at UTS in Sydney.

Gail’s background spans working as a teacher, studying a Master of Environmental Management, and working as a policy advisor in the NSW Government, WWF Australia, the Australian Conservation Foundation and the NSW State Parliament. More recently, Gail completed a Master of Philosophy by Research and a PhD investigating social attitudes to electric cars. Her PhD was titled “Accelerating Australia’s electric vehicle uptake: Overcoming socio-technical inertia and bridging the gaps with public policy options designed to transform road transport for a decarbonised future”.

Gail received wide media coverage during her postgrad study with the aim of increasing the public’s knowledge of electric cars to help us meet Australia’s pledge to the Paris agreement to reach net zero emissions by 2050.