Electric vehicles and their charging infrastructure will play an increasingly important role in Australia’s future electricity system, according to the Australian Energy Market Operator’s (AEMO) 2026 Integrated System Plan (ISP).
For the first time, the ISP recognises electric vehicles and charging infrastructure as consumer energy resources (CER), alongside rooftop solar and home batteries, highlighting their potential to support both transport electrification and grid stability.
The plan forecasts that by 2050 around 80 per cent of vehicles on Australian roads will be electric, with workplace, kerbside, commuter car park and on-road charging expected to form key parts of the future charging network.
Electricity demand set to grow
AEMO projects electricity demand from road transport will increase significantly over the next 25 years as more passenger and commercial vehicles transition to electric power.
Road transport electricity consumption is forecast to rise from around 1 terawatt-hour (TWh) in 2026 to 61TWh by 2050—equivalent to approximately 90 per cent of the electricity currently used by Australian households in a year.
The report also identifies commercial and freight vehicles as a major contributor to future electricity demand, accounting for around half of the projected increase.
“Around half of future transport electricity demand is expected to come from commercial and freight vehicles, yet many of the questions around truck charging, depot charging and freight charging corridors remain unresolved,” said Julie Delvecchio, Chief Executive Officer of the Electric Vehicle Council.
“As Australia moves toward a more electrified transport future, ensuring we have the right charging infrastructure in the right locations will be just as important as forecasting the electricity demand itself.”
Vehicle-to-grid potential recognised
The ISP also highlights the role electric vehicles could play as distributed energy resources through bidirectional charging technologies.
AEMO forecasts that more than 10 per cent of household EVs could participate in vehicle-to-grid (V2G) programs by 2050, providing approximately 4.3 gigawatts of flexible capacity and almost 49 gigawatt-hours of storage to support the electricity network.
“Even under more conservative participation assumptions than those considered in the Draft ISP, EVs are still forecast to provide one of Australia’s largest distributed storage resources,” said Dr Alina Dini, Head of Energy, Infrastructure and Commercial at the Electric Vehicle Council.
Charging infrastructure remains a priority
While the ISP outlines the growing role of electric vehicles within Australia’s energy system, the Electric Vehicle Council said further planning is needed to determine how the country’s charging network should develop.
“While the ISP confirms charging infrastructure will be critical, it leaves open the question of how much charging infrastructure Australia will need, where it should be built, how freight charging networks should develop, or how deployment should be prioritised. That’s exactly why Australia needs a coordinated national outlook for charging,” said Dr Dini.
The latest forecasts come as electric vehicle sales continue to grow. According to the Electric Vehicle Council, 30,618 battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles were sold in Australia during May 2026, representing 29.6 per cent of all new vehicle sales for the month.
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