In the span of a single quarter, nearly half of all new vehicles sold in Australia were electric or hybrid — a shift accelerated not by idealism alone, but by the ancient pressure of scarcity, as geopolitical conflict in the Middle East sent fuel prices surging and consumers recalculated the cost of motion. A government subsidy, modest in ambition but vast in uptake, now stands at the centre of a debate about whether markets need shepherding or whether they find their own way once the conditions are right. The question Australia now faces is one every society must eventually answer: when a tra