Short answer
Check the licence first — auto electricians need a licence for some work and not other work. Then check that the business is who it says it is: of the 727 Australian auto electricians in this directory, only 11.1% publish an ABN you can confirm, and 3.8% list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website.
Auto Electricians handle vehicle electrical faults, batteries and alternators, wiring, lighting, dash cams, and car air conditioning. This is what to check before you let one into your house, and what the evidence says about the category as a whole.
Auto Electricians are licensed for some work and not others
Auto electrical work is licensed as part of motor vehicle repair in some states and unlicensed in others. The one rule with national force is refrigerant: anyone working on a car's air conditioning needs an ARC licence from the Australian Refrigeration Council, and that is a register you can search yourself.
There is no national licence register in Australia — each state and territory runs its own. The regulator for your state is listed at the bottom of this guide, and checking a number takes about a minute.
What 727 Australian auto electricians actually publish
We check every business in this directory the same way, and publish the result whether it flatters the trade or not. For auto electricians:
| What we checked | Auto Electricians | All trades |
|---|---|---|
| Publish an ABN we could confirm | 11.1% | 21.5% |
| Listed phone matches their own website | 70.2% | 59.2% |
| Listed phone contradicts their own website | 3.8% | 7.7% |
| Website responded when we checked | 77.1% | 81% |
| Corroborated by two or more sources | 77% | 81.1% |
| Median number of Google reviews | 51 | 39 |
What goes wrong with auto electricians
- Air conditioning regassed by someone without an ARC licence
- Diagnostic time billed by the hour with no cap and no finding
- Accessories wired straight to the battery without a fuse
What to ask before the work starts
- If this involves air conditioning, what is your ARC licence number?
- What is the diagnostic charge, and what happens if the fault is not found?
- What repair licence or accreditation do you hold in this state?
A auto electrician who answers all three of those without hesitating is telling you something useful. One who is vague about a licence number is telling you something too.
The median matters more than the average
The median auto electrician in this directory has 51 Google reviews. That is the number to hold in your head when you see a perfect five-star rating: five stars from four reviews and 4.6 from three hundred are not comparable, and the second is almost always the safer hire.
It is also why the ranking here weights review volume more heavily than review score. A business cannot buy its position, and a handful of glowing reviews does not move it far.
Where the auto electricians are
Brisbane (22), Perth (17), Melbourne (17), Logan (15). A shortlist for your own area is more useful than a national ranking — the best auto electrician in the country is no help if they are four states away.
Where to check a licence, by state
There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state where the work is happening.
- NSWNSW Fair Tradingbuilders, electricians, plumbers and specialist trades
- VICBuilding and Plumbing Commission, and Energy Safe Victoria for electricalbuilding practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria
- QLDQueensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC)building and most trade contractor licences
- WABuilding and Energybuilders, electricians, plumbers and gas fitters
- SAConsumer and Business Servicesbuilding work contractors and supervisors
- TASConsumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS)building and occupational licences
- ACTAccess Canberraconstruction occupations licensing
- NTNT Government building practitioner registrationbuilding practitioners and electrical workers
Common questions
- Do auto electricians need a licence in Australia?
- Sometimes. Auto electrical work is licensed as part of motor vehicle repair in some states and unlicensed in others. The one rule with national force is refrigerant: anyone working on a car's air conditioning needs an ARC licence from the Australian Refrigeration Council, and that is a register you can search yourself.
- How do I check an auto electrician's licence?
- There is no national register. Each state and territory has its own regulator — NSW Fair Trading, the Building and Plumbing Commission and Energy Safe Victoria in Victoria, QBCC in Queensland, Building and Energy in WA, Consumer and Business Services in SA, CBOS in Tasmania, Access Canberra in the ACT, and the NT Government. Search the licence number the business gives you on the regulator for the state the work is happening in.
- What percentage of Australian auto electricians have a verifiable ABN?
- 11.1% of the 727 auto electricians in this directory publish an ABN we could confirm against the national register, against 21.5% across all trades.
- How many reviews should an auto electrician have?
- The median auto electrician here has 51. Treat a five-star rating from a handful of reviews with more caution than a slightly lower rating from hundreds.
Compare auto electricians near you
727 auto electricians, ranked on the evidence described above rather than on advertising.
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