But Mr Kozlovskii recently "relaunched" his service in Canberra, as well as Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, after finding a way to reduce expensive premiums.

His company, Evee, launched in 2016 and allowed users to rent out a Tesla to commute between Canberra and Sydney.

But when Mr Kozlovskii looked to expand his business he couldn't afford to buy a fleet of electric cars, so he needed to get other Australian owners of electric cars on board.

It was here he ran into problems. Insurers' premiums made it unaffordable for owners to insure their cars, mainly Teslas, and rent them out through Evee.

"It was just prohibitively high," Mr Kozlovskii said.

He said he had 50 owners looking to sign up but they wouldn't because of the expensive premiums.

"The insurance market in Australia is quite stagnant. I'd say they're very slow to adapt and change to new things," Mr Kozlovskii said.

To this day, he still doesn't understand why underwriters were so hesitant to insure Teslas - and it was specifically Teslas - he said.

Now, owners of electric cars can rent out their cars through Evee. To get involved, Mr Kozlovskii said there was an upfront cost of up to $2500 for insurance. Previously, he said, this cost between $6000 and $12,000.

Mr Kozlovskii said he started the business to help people get a taste of electric cars.

"With the lack of any government incentives or policies directed to electric vehicles, the question was what can we do as a private company?" Mr Kozlovskii said. "Personally, I just think it's super important."

He said the uptake of renewable energy meant little if petrol-fuelled cars were still on the road.

The transport sector created about 18 per cent of Australia's carbon dioxide emissions in 2018, according to independent non-profit organisation the Climate Council.

The owner of Evee's sole Tesla in Canberra, Lorena Wieshamm, hoped the company would help make electric cars "mainstream".

"It's basically just like an Airbnb for electric vehicles," she said.