Australian appetites for battery-electric vehicles skyrocketed this year, with sales of EVs in the first half of 2023 outpacing the entirety of sales in 2022, according to the latest report from the Electric Vehicle Council.
The latest ‘State of Electric Vehicles: July’ details a massive uptick in adoption rates of electric vehicles, with the 46,624 sold in the first half of 2023 outstripping all of the battery-electric sales in 2022.
At the same point last year, EVs accounted for a 3.8% share of the powertrain mix of new vehicles sold, which has now increased to 8.4% of all new vehicles sold.
That brings Australia’s tally of battery-electric vehicles on the road to around 130,000 in total, which comprises 109,000 EVs and 21,000 plug-in hybrids.
In the past 12 months, there has been a 56% increase in the number of battery-electric and PHEV variants on sale here in Australia, which now totals 148.
Of that mix, there’s 32 plug-in hybrids and 59 battery-electric vehicles on sale.
In terms of market share, Tesla has quite a substantial lead on the rest, with its Model Y and Model 3 accounting for nearly two-thirds of the market, while the BYD Atto 3, MG ZS EV and the Volvo XC40 rounded-out the top five.
As we noted in last month’s VFacts report, sales of Tesla’s Model Y bettered those of the almighty Ford Ranger, and even scraped on the heels of the outright table-topper, the Toyota HiLux.
While these month-to-month reports are more indicative of supply chain and production constraints than simple consumer demand, it remains a telling sign of the times to see an EV ranking so high in outright sales.
The report also mapped out a ‘scorecard’ for Australian states and territories when it comes to EV incentives, which placed the ACT and NSW atop the leaderboard, with Tasmania and the Northern Territory in last place.
