The Sustainable Household Scheme and home EV charging.

What is the Sustainable Household Scheme?

That distinction is the one most commonly got wrong. The scheme page states the rate twice, “An interest rate of 3% applies to loans for households (excluding Home Energy Support Program participants) and community groups”, and the July 2026 guidelines repeat it: “A low interest rate of 3% applies to all loans.” If you have read that the ACT has an interest-free loan for a charger, you have read something out of date.

The ACT also runs a separate EV charger rebate, but it is a business programme for eligible ACT businesses that operate or subcontract fleet vehicles. It is not available for a home charger, and the two are often confused.

Does it cover an EV charger?

Yes, on its own. The scheme page lists the eligible products as including “household battery storage systems … electric vehicles electric vehicle charging infrastructure ceiling insulation installation costs for these products electric cargo bikes (from September 2026)”. The July 2026 guidelines place EV charging infrastructure under Category A alongside household batteries, so it is not conditional on buying solar, a battery or an electric car.

The ACT Government’s EV charger buyers guide adds the parts that decide a job:

• An ACT licensed electrician is required. “Installation of an EV charger requires an ACT licenced electrician.”
• A supply upgrade can be financed. “If there is a requirement to upgrade to 3-phase power this can be included as part of your loan.” What that involves is on our three-phase EV charging page.
• Property type matters. “EV chargers may be installed in an eligible property which is either a standalone residence or a unit titled property. New builds are not eligible.”
• Installation is inside the loan. “Installation fees and charges may be included as part of the loan.”

Note the floor: the minimum loan application value is $2,000, so check that the work you are financing reaches it. What moves the number at your place is set out on our cost guide, and the work itself on the EV charger installation page.

How much can you borrow, and over how long?

The $20,000 figure is the one to check against anything else you read: it applies to new applicants from 1 July 2026, and $15,000 now applies only to earlier participants.

Source: ACT Government, Climate Choices, “Sustainable Household Scheme”, no date shown, stating changes from 1 July 2026, and “Sustainable Household Scheme — Guidelines for participants”, July 2026. Checked 18 September 2026.

Who is eligible, and what do you have to do first?

The person. For Category A, a scheme participant is “a person who owns the property in which the installation is to occur; or living with the person who owns the property in which the installation is to occur”. A tenant who does not own the property and does not live with the owner falls outside that definition, so a rental cannot be fitted out with a charger under the scheme. Tenants are eligible under Category C, which is electric vehicles rather than chargers. There is no stated income test, but “a credit check will be undertaken to assess an applicant’s financial suitability”.

The property. It must be “either a standalone residence or a unit titled property”, with “each individual unit titled property within a unit plan … defined as a distinct eligible property”, and it must be “geographically located within the ACT (including Hall, Tharwa, and Oaks Estate but not Jervis Bay Territory)”. New builds are excluded, a dwelling recently constructed, not previously occupied, that “has received a Certificate of Occupancy or Use within the past 12 months”. And “if a property is covered by a body corporate you may require approvals to install a product”; our apartment and strata charging page covers what that involves in the ACT.

The unimproved value cap. This is the gate that disqualifies the most Canberra homes, and the one competitors most often omit. The guidelines state: “The UV of the property must be at or below $750,000 in any year from 2022, for: freestanding houses and non-titled dual occupancies (non-unit titled dwellings); and townhouses and unit titled dual occupancies (stand-alone unit titled dwellings) based on the unit entitlement percentage.” For apartments: “For unit titled multi-storey apartments the UV of the property must be at or below $300,000 in any year from 2022.” The current criteria “commenced on 1 July 2023”. Read “in any year from 2022” carefully, meeting the threshold in an earlier year still counts.

The workshop. Attendance comes before the application: “You will also need to register for and participate in an online or in-person workshop before applying for a loan.”

Source: ACT Government, “Sustainable Household Scheme — Guidelines for participants”, July 2026. Checked 18 September 2026.

How do you apply, and what does the installer have to provide?

1. Check the criteria yourself. Ownership, property type, ACT location and the unimproved value cap decide most applications before anything else happens.
2. Register for and attend an ACT Government workshop. It runs for about an hour, online or in person, and the guidelines require it before you apply.
3. Get quotes from Brighte-accredited suppliers. The ACT Government says to “get your quotes from suppliers accredited with our loans provider, Brighte”, and suggests seeking more than one.
4. Choose a quote. “Select your preferred quote and your chosen supplier will initiate the loan process with Brighte.”
5. Complete the finance application. Brighte Capital Pty Ltd is the lender; it verifies your details, runs the credit check and emails a loan offer for you to accept.
6. Have the work done, then start repaying. You and your supplier sign a supply-and-install contract that “does not involve the ACT Government”, Brighte pays the supplier after a compliant installation, and repayments start on completion.

What that asks of an installer is specific: a written quote you can take to Brighte, accreditation with Brighte if the loan is funding the work, and an ACT licensed electrician doing it. There is no separate ACT Government approved supplier list for EV chargers, the list is Brighte’s. Ask any installer, including us, where they stand on Brighte accreditation before you apply, and send us your details if you want a quote written up for the scheme.

One thing the scheme does not publish is a turnaround time. No processing or assessment window appears on the scheme page, in the July 2026 guidelines or in the charger buyers guide, so leave room in your timeline between the workshop and the install date.

What about the Home Energy Support rebates?

They are the zero-interest door, and they are for eligible concession card holders. The ACT Government states: “If you have an eligible concession card, you may be able to apply for up to $5,000 in rebates through the Home Energy Support Program. Rebates can cover up to half the cost of energy efficiency upgrades including ceiling insulation, solar panels and switching from gas to efficient electric appliances. You can combine the rebate with a zero-interest loan of up to $10,000 through the Sustainable Household Scheme to reduce upfront costs.”

Read that list of what the rebates cover: an EV charger is not named in it. The part of the Home Energy Support pathway that can carry a charger is the zero-interest loan, not the rebate. We will not tell you a charger attracts a Home Energy Support rebate, and you should be careful of anyone who does.

What does not apply any more?

The zero emissions vehicle stamp duty exemption ended on 31 August 2025. From 1 September 2025 zero emissions vehicles pay the lowest motor vehicle duty rate of any emissions category, which is not the same as paying none. The ACT Government states it directly: “Stamp duty charges for the purchase of new and used ZEVs will come into effect from 1 September 2025.” The rates that replaced the exemption are set by the Taxation Administration (Amounts Payable, Motor Vehicle Duty) Determination 2025 (DI2025-152). Any page telling you there is no stamp duty on an EV in the ACT is out of date.

Two years of free registration has ended. Access Canberra states: “Your EV’s 2-year free registration period has ended — If your vehicle’s 2-years’ free registration ended before the start of emissions-based registration, you paid the lowest weight-based fee for up to one year. This fee is no longer available for renewals after 1 July 2024.” The concession itself closed on 30 June 2024, under the Road Transport (General) Concession Determination 2024 (No 1) (DI2024-20). Emissions-based registration replaced it, and the effect is comparative rather than free: “The transition to emissions-based registration results in low and zero emissions vehicles having cheaper registration fees. This is compared to higher emissions vehicles in the same weight range.”

The ACT Government’s own current list of zero emissions vehicle purchase incentives now runs to three items: “lower motor vehicle duty (also known as stamp duty) for lower-emissions vehicles / lower registration fees for lower-emissions vehicles through the ACT’s emissions-based registration / up to $20,000 low-interest loans to buy a ZEV under the Sustainable Household Scheme (eligible households only).” No rebate for charger hardware appears on that list, in the ACT or federally.

Source: ACT Government, Climate Choices, “Zero Emissions Vehicles”, no date shown; ACT Revenue Office, “Motor vehicle duty”, no date shown; Access Canberra, “Emissions-based registration”, no date shown. Checked 18 September 2026.

What about a novated lease or an employer-provided EV?

The federal fringe benefits tax exemption for electric cars is separate from any ACT scheme, and it draws a line straight through the middle of this topic. The Australian Taxation Office lists the exempt car expenses as “registration / insurance / repairs or maintenance / fuel, including the cost of electricity to charge electric cars”. Then it says of the hardware: “A home charging station is not a car expense associated with providing a car fringe benefit for electric cars. However, it may be a property fringe benefit or an expense payment fringe benefit.”

So the electricity you use at home can fall inside the exemption while the charger itself is treated differently. Two more points worth knowing before you ask your employer:

• There is a shortcut rate for home charging electricity. The ATO’s worked example for the 2026–27 FBT year uses an EV home charging rate of 5.47 cents per kilometre.
• Plug-in hybrids are out. “From 1 April 2025, a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle will not be considered a zero or low emissions vehicle under FBT law and isn’t eligible for the electric cars exemption. However, you can continue to apply the electric car exemption in certain conditions.”

The exemption is not permanent either: the ATO notes that “the government will complete a review into this exemption by mid-2027 to consider electric car take-up”. This is tax law rather than our field, read the ATO page and talk to your accountant before you plan around it.

Source: Australian Taxation Office, “Electric cars exemption”, last updated 1 April 2026. Checked 18 September 2026.

What about a NSW address in Queanbeyan, Googong or the Yass Valley?

The scheme does not reach there. The property must be “geographically located within the ACT”, so a home in Queanbeyan, Jerrabomberra, Googong, Bungendore, Yass or Murrumbateman cannot use it.

We are not aware of a NSW rebate for a home charger. The NSW household programmes we can find cover batteries, hot water, air conditioning, solar for apartment residents and virtual power plants. The NSW grant that funded apartment car parks is closed: the NSW Government lists its Electric vehicle ready buildings grant as “Status: Closed”, with applications closing “15 December 2023, 9:00 am”.

What does change across the border is the network and the paperwork rather than the money, see our service areas page and the apartment and strata charging page.

Is the ACT banning petrol cars from 2035?

Not as a settled decision, and the government’s own wording is careful. Its current page says: “The ACT Government is exploring options to prevent the sale of new light internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles – like petrol and diesel cars – from 2035.”

The ACT Zero Emissions Vehicles Strategy 2022–30 sets the intention and leaves the mechanism open: it states the government’s intention “to commence the phase-out of new light internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles from 2035” and that “the Government will explore the best and most appropriate mechanism for achieving such a phase out”. The same strategy sets a 2030 target of “80-90% of new light vehicle sales in the ACT being ZEVs”. Anyone telling you the ACT has banned petrol cars from 2035 has gone further than the source does.

Source: ACT Government, Climate Choices, “Zero Emissions Vehicles”, no date shown; ACT Zero Emissions Vehicles Strategy 2022–30. Checked 18 September 2026.

How many electric vehicles are registered in the ACT?

At 1 September 2026 there were 18,269 battery-electric light vehicles registered in the ACT, up from 12,535 a year earlier, a rise of 45.7%, and 5.49% of the territory’s 332,735 registered light vehicles. Those counts come from the Access Canberra registration dataset, which is published monthly and records vehicles by motive power; the percentages are arithmetic on those counts. The ACT Government puts the same point in round numbers: “One in 20 vehicles registered in the ACT is now electric.”

Source: Access Canberra, “Total vehicles registered in the ACT”, ACT Open Data Portal, rows last updated 1 September 2026; ACT Government, “More Canberrans choosing electric vehicles”, 7 September 2026. Checked 18 September 2026.

If your car is one of them and you are working out what a home charger involves, start with the EV charger installation page, the cost guide for what drives the number, or the solar charging page if you have panels. Or send your details through the quote form and we will write it up.

Sustainable Household Scheme questions