Electric vehicle sales in Australia more than tripled last year but were still far lower than in a majority of developed countries, industry data shows.
The Electric Vehicle Council says 6,718 full electric and hybrid plug-in vehicles were sold in 2019, up from 2,216 the year before. Sales of combustion engine cars fell 7.8% over that period.
The release of the industry group data follows Britain this week announcing it would ban new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars from 2035. The Electric Vehicle Council said the spike in sales in Australia from a low base suggested consumers wanted the technology despite it being yet to receive the support offered elsewhere.
“The good news is that the number of Australians buying EVs is surging despite a lack of government incentives or support,” the council’s chief executive, Beyhad Jafari, said. “The bad news is that even with this strong growth, EVs still only represent 0.6% of sales. That compares poorly with 3.8% of sales in Europe and 4.7% of sales in China.”
Support for EVs was a significant point of difference between the major parties at last year’s federal election. Labor promised a target of 50% new car sales being electric by 2030.
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, accused the opposition of wanting to “end the weekend” by forcing people out of four-wheel drives, while the minister for small business, Michaelia Cash, told tradies only the Coalition would “save their utes”.
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Note that these data do not include simple hybrids (HEVs), which are making up an increasing portion of sales:
Customer deliveries of Toyota’s hybrid electric vehicles in 2019 are on forecast to be well in excess of 20,000 vehicles, doubling the total of 11,590 hybrid vehicles sold in 2018.
Hybrid deliveries this year are expected to exceed 10 per cent of Toyota’s overall sales, up from 5.3 per cent last year and 3.9 per cent in 2017.
In the first fourth months of this year, sales of Toyota’s hybrid vehicles have risen by 85 per cent compared with the same period a year ago.
The 2019 tally of 5,613 hybrid cars represents almost 8.7 per cent of the brand’s total sales and compares with 3,029 hybrid cars or 4.4 per cent of sales at the same time last year. In April 2019, Toyota sold 1,458 hybrid vehicles or 9.6 per cent of its total sales for the month.
Hybrids account for almost half of all Camry sales this year (45.4 per cent), up from 39.6 per cent last year and 20.7 per cent in 2017.
A similar trend has emerged for Corolla, with hybrid variants now comprising 31.4 per cent of 2019 sales compared with 12.5 per cent last year and 5.8 per cent in 2017.
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There are no easily accessible data for EV sales in OZ, but this (old) chart from RenewEconomy shows how sales have progressed since the introduction of the Nissan Leaf in 2011. Again, these data exclude hybrids. Sales of 6700 (but including plug-in hybrids) in 2019 is a big jump on the 1400 in 2016. Sales of cars with an electric engine (EVs, PHEVs, HEVs) are likely to double every year from now on.
The pattern, duplicated across many countries, is clear. Petrol/diesel sales are slumping, prolly because consumers are waiting to buy an EV/PHEV/HEV, while sales of cars with some sort of electric engine are exploding. And many consumers are settling for HEVs because EVs are still too costly but with a hybrid, they can still cut their greenhouse gas emissions as well as their petrol bills.
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