The council resolved in July to investigate replacing a Holden Barina with a fully-electric vehicle. The Examiner contacted councils in Tenterfield, Armidale, Tamworth, Uralla and Walcha, all of which are still running a mix of petrol and hybrid vehicles and had no plans to buy an electric vehicle.

There's a couple of reasons for that, a report presented to the Glen Innes Severn council at Thursday's meeting found.

"The EV (electric vehicle) market in Australia is destined for great things. At present, however, it remains immature," the investigation found.

There's no local dealer authorised to sell them, the report said, with an Inverell dealer telling council the models they were looking for are only available from a small number of metropolitan stores.

Without a local dealer, the council report said they were concerned local mechanics could not make repairs given the vehicles' very different design.

The report, put together by Council director of Infrastructure Services Keith Appleby, said electrics are also more than twice as expensive.

Councilors unanimously voted to go back to plan a) and buy a regular Toyota Camry Hybrid to replace the Barina.

MORE NEWS: