The secret to selling more electric cars is actually in your homes

Integrating solar panels and batteries into new home builds will be key to the uptake of electric cars in Australia.

That’s the feedback Mercedes-Benz is receiving from its customers as electric vehicle sales continue to rise faster than charging infrastructure is rolled out. Because of that, Mercedes owners have told the car maker that they believe the federal and state governments need to support the use of solar and batteries in new homes in order to future-proof them for an electric future.

“Some of the feedback that we are getting from our customers, is that the incentives to install solar and batteries into new [home] builds needs to be greater,” Mercedes Australia Spokesperson, Jerry Stamoulis told CarsGuide. “If there are strong incentives in place to stall solar and batteries into as many new homes where possible, this will encourage new home builders to include solar into the deisng process.”

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He added: “If you’re building a new home you can integrate solar at the design stage. Then you’re guaranteed it’s going to happen and uptake will increase.”

Despite the increase in public charging networks, according to feedback from Mercedes’ EV owners, they prefer to charge at home or their work rather than publicly. This is why they are pushing for government support to ensure homes are capable of living with EVs into the future.

“That’s some of the feedback we’re getting because a lot of our customers are predominantly charging their vehicles at home or work,” Stamoulis said. “The take-up rate on public charging, that we can see from our customers, hasn’t been high. A high percentage of them are charging at home or work.”

Mercedes is in the midst of a significant EV ramp up.

Mercedes is in the midst of a significant EV ramp up, recently launching the EQE Sedan to join the EQA, EQB, EQC and EQS Sedan in its line-up, as well as the EQV commercial van. By the end of 2023, Mercedes will add the EQE SUV and EQS SUV, expanding its electric car range to eight options.

The timing appears to be ideal, with sales of EVs up more than 200 per cent year-to-date to the end of April. While that figure is largely propped up by Tesla’s strong sales of the Model 3 and Model Y, the increasing diversity in the EV market is driving consumer interest.

Ensuring that Australia’s infrastructure is ready for this sharp increase in cars looking for electricity will likely be a major part of the federal government’s upcoming National Electric Vehicle Strategy (NEVS). It’s expected the NEVs will include a raft of measures to support EVs but there are no firm details revealed yet.