EV sales expected to double this year, report finds

More than one in five cars sold in the ACT are now electric vehicles. That's more than double the figure for the other states and ter...

More than one in five cars sold in the ACT are now electric vehicles.

That's more than double the figure for the other states and territories, led by NSW and Tasmania where they account for nine per cent of the market.

Australia-wide EVs account for 8.4 per cent of new vehicle sales, with a total of 46,624 sales for the first six months of this year.

These are the findings of  the annual State of Electric Vehicles report by the Electric Vehicle Council (EVC) which predicts sales of EVs are on track to more than double in 2023.

At the same time EVC warns Australia continues to lag comparable nations when it comes to consumer choice and is likely to do so until necessary policy reform is introduced.

The report finds that although there has been growth in model choice, Australia's EV market continues to be dominated by a just few models, with the Tesla Model Y, Tesla Model 3 and the BYD Atto 3 representing 68.1 per cent of Australia’s EV market.

This underscores the need for policies that can both increase sales volume and improve the variety of options available to consumers, it says.

EVC chief executive Behyad Jafari said the although the acceleration in EV sales was encouraging, Australia would never come close to catching up with the rest of the world under current policy settings.

"Australians now know the future of driving is electric and there's growing enthusiasm for all of the benefits that will deliver," he said.

"While Australians have some high-quality options to choose from, it’s no surprise that the models that were most available had the highest sales.

"Many other brands simply sold out of their full allocation of vehicles sent to Australia.

“That's because global carmakers are still only sending a trickle of the vehicles they produce to the Australian market, because we remain one of the few nations on earth without new vehicle efficiency standards.

"Our lack of new vehicle efficiency standards means car makers are essentially rewarded for sending their EVs to markets other than Australia. So small wonder we remain at the back of the queue.

"The EV models that lead the sales charts at the moment are terrific, but Australian consumers should have the same choices as drivers in other countries.

"If the Australian Government gets on with introducing strong new vehicle efficiency standards, we will see consumer choice expand rapidly.

"The good news for the federal government is that its initial policies are clearly working, and demand is sky high.

"By introducing globally competitive standards we can get the supply of EV options to match demand."

Once again, the State of Electric Vehicles report assigns Australian governments a score out of 10 depending on their policies regarding electric vehicle uptake across all segments of vehicles.

ACT and NSW lead with a rating of 9/10, while the Northern Territory and Tasmania lag with 4/10 ratings.

Victoria receives a poor 5/10 rating due to the state governments confusing signals to the market, especially the premature introduction of an EV tax and its abrupt cancellation of incentives.

The Federal Government scores 7/10, recognising the creation of a National EV policy, which had not occurred under the previous federal government.

"There's really encouraging momentum across most of Australia on EV policy, but our report also finds there is abundant room for improvement," Mr Jafari said.

"If Australia is any chance of hitting our 2040 emission targets governments will have to lift their game.

"Unless we rapidly speed up the electrification of Australia's fleet, there is no way we can hit net zero in time.

"Our report also finds all jurisdictions are lagging on electric truck policy, meaning we are missing a crucial opportunity to decarbonise freight.

"Uptake of electric trucks are being held back by government regulatory barriers that were resolved overseas many years ago, like truck width and mass limits."

Those figures again.

The ACT continues to lead on EV sales as a proportion of new vehicle sales at 21.8 per cent, followed by Tasmania (9.0 per cent), New South Wales (9.0 per cent), Victoria (8.5 per cent), Queensland (7.7 per cent), Western Australia (7.5 per cent), South Australia (6.5 per cent) and the Northern Territory (2.4 per cent).

Tesla Model Y

Tesla Model 3

BYD Atto 3

 

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