Futurist Malcolm Gregory, who advises businesses on emerging trends, said Wagga needed to establish itself as a “charging hub” before electric vehicles became more commonplace.

“If we want to be known for being EV-friendly, we should start identifying places to put them in and then lobby to get (charging stations),” Mr Gregory said. “If (Tesla founder) Elon Musk said he wanted to finance 100 new charging locations it would be good if we could put our hand up and say we’re ready to go.”

Sales of electric cars in Australia vaulted about 70 per cent in 2017 but the nation was lagging “about seven years” behind global uptake, Electric Vehicle Council chief Behyad Jafari tipped, as demand began to ramp up.

“Government action is critical because the benefits of transitioning to electric vehicles are societal, so it can’t be left to the industry alone,” Mr Jafari told Fairfax Media.

“Up to now, there’s (been) no government support for the uptake (of) EVs.”

Mr Gregory’s vision for Wagga’s future would involve council proactively laying the groundwork for charging infrastructure, while also marketing the city as an EV-friendly destination halfway between Sydney and Melbourne. 

“We can’t just wait until it happens… we need the planning and marketing to plug into our tourism information,” he said. “Twenty years ago some regions listed the service stations they had, the same will go for charging.”

Wagga already has three EV charging stations; generic ones at the Thirsty Crow and Rules Club and a Tesla charger at the airport. But the city is already behind the curve when it comes to the world’s best-known EV brand: Tesla. The company has “superchargers” already installed at Gundagai, Wodonga and Goulburn, which allow motorists to add 270 kilometres of range in 30 minutes. This “refilling” time is substantially longer than topping up a tank of petrol, but Tesla owners get about 1600 kilometres worth of free charge every year. 

Mayor Greg Conkey said he supported the concept of electric vehicles, but questioned what role councils had to play in setting up infrastructure.

“We don’t have anything to do with service stations beyond making allowances for them and ecouraging them to set up here,” Cr Conkey said. “I’m sure that if there’s a need there private enterprises will jump on it, we don’t want to compete with them. But it’s certainly the way of the future and we won’t bury our head in the sand, we as councillors should have a discussion to see what role we play in this.”

NRMA chief executive Rohan Lund said governments needed to support the transition from petrol-based vehicles to EVs.

“For electric vehicles to be a viable option for regional motorists, an extensive charging network that services people at home, in the workplace and on the road is essential,” Mr Lund said. “The NRMA is investing $10 million to build Australia’s largest electric vehicle fast-charging network (which) will ensure drivers are never more than 150 kilometres from a publicly accessible, universal fast charger. The range of electric vehicles is improving rapidly… the range of electric vehicles will inevitably extend beyond traditional vehicles as technology advances.”

Mr Gregory said battery and charging technology had advanced more rapidly than expected over the past few years and he expected the range and performance of EVs to continually increase.

“The costs are going down and the performance is going up,” he said. “It’s the same as with solar panels, 10 years ago a certain amount of power would cost twice as much as it does now and the technology’s getting better, it’s improving every year.”

A recent report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimated worldwide demand for electric vehicles would rise 45 per cent from a year ago and predicted global sales would “explode in the late 2020s as the technology establishes a cost advantage over internal combustion engine car”, reaching 30 million by 2030.

“It’s just a matter of saying ‘yes’ to EV,” Mr Gregory said.