Australian EV sales soar

A 203% jump in Australian electric vehicles sales for 2019 is welcomed by the Electric Vehicle Council (EVC).

Newly released figures show 6718 EVs sold in Australia last year, up from 2216 in 2018, and that internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle sales dropped by 7.8%.

While the trend is promising, it shows how far Australia could go if it supported the EV industry like most other nations, EVC chief executive Behyad Jafari says.

“The good news is that the number of Australians buying EVs is surging despite a lack of government incentives or support,” he says.

“The bad news is that even with this strong growth, EVs still only represent 0.6% of sales. That compares poorly to 3.8% of sales in Europe and 4.7% of sales in China.

“If the Australian EV market had the same incentives and support as the EU and China, we would be talking about some 50,000 new EVs on our roads. That would actually start delivering significant benefit in terms of cleaning our air, lowering our carbon emissions, and lowering our dependence on foreign oil.”

Jafari points to British prime minister Boris Johnson announcing the United Kingdom will ban the sale of ICE vehicles and hybrids by 2035.

“EV tech will flood into the UK and stimulate the British economy,” Jafari says.

“UK consumers will have access to the latest and most affordable EV models, and charging infrastructure will proliferate. If we embarked on similar policies the same thing would happen here.”

Jafari says the new sales figures show Australians are enthusiastic early adopters.

“But if we had politics that really backed the electrification of our fleet, and people understood the government was behind the transition, we could be actively transforming our cities and our economy.

“Given that Australian decision makers at all levels are eager to start taking stronger action on climate change, transitioning away from combustion engine vehicles would be an excellent place to start.”