The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has said that electric vehicle registrations have nearly doubled in the first half of 2020, however petrol powered vehicles “still dominate the fleet.”
The ABS has released a publication detailing the near triple-digit increase for electric vehicle purchases in Australia.
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Sarah Kiely, Director of the ABS’ Transport Statistics has said that “while electric vehicles are still small in number, less than 0.1 per cent of the fleet, the 14,254 electric vehicles registered in 2020 is almost double the previous year.”
In total, Australians registered 19.8 million vehicles by the 31st of January, which represents a 1.5% increase over 2019’s vehicle registrations. Diesel’s share of the market grew in 2020, accounting for 25.6% of the national fleet, with petrol’s share dropping from 73.6% to 72.7%.
While it’s too early to tell exactly which electric vehicle models are leading the electric vehicle adoption curve, it’s likely that Tesla’s more affordable Model 3 offering is a hit with consumers, as well as EV offerings from Nissan, Toyota and German manufacturers like BMW.
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On a state-by-state basis, all states reduced the rate of their vehicle registrations, barring Tasmania who increased theirs by 2.6%, and Western Australia who was up by 1.5%.
Toyota dominated the market, with 3 million vehicles registered in 2020, with Holden in second place, and Mazda, Ford and Hyundai in third, fourth and fifth-place respectively. In spite of its podium finish, Holden’s sales reported a steep 5.8% decline in sales, and an identical drop for Ford.
Peter Khoury of the NRMA has previously said that if Australia fails to adopt electric vehicles, it will be a “first world country with a third world fleet.”
“The countries that built the cars we love are overwhelmingly telling us that they are going to stop building petrol cars, they are going to stop building diesel cars, and that the future is electric.”
“If we don’t start taking steps now, we will fall even further behind,” Khoury said. “Our community will suffer, our economy will suffer and the environment will suffer.”
