Electric car sales have more than tripled in Australia in the past year, with 6718 electric cars-including hybrid plug-ins-sold nationwide.
The new figures are from the Electric Vehicle Council-of which I’m a member-showing electric buying up three fold from 2216 in 2018.
Australia still trails the world of course, with the plug-in market only 0.6% of total car market, compared to Norway’s 56%, Iceland’s 25%, Netherlands’ 15% and China’s 4.7%.
Still I’m encouraged. The jump in electric happened in a pretty weak car market, with new combustion engine vehicle sales dropping by 7.8% last year.
The news comes just as Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson launched a new policy to block selling new petrol, diesel, and hybrid cars from 2040 to five years earlier in 2035.
Clearly our government needs to do something similar. Well anything would help to try to stimulate uptake here.
The Electric Vehicle Council says if the Australian electric car market had the same incentives and support as the EU and China, Australia would now have 50,000 new electric vehicles on the roads.
The Federal Government is drafting a National Electric Vehicle Strategy to be ready by the middle of the year. It can’t come soon enough.
After all electric vehicles will be cost competitive with combustion engine vehicles by 2025, but cost is a barrier here. Australia only has 6 electric models to buy, but Europe already has 150.
We also need to get cracking on building the all important national charging network, especially along highways, in regional Australia and in urban centres.
In a week when Tesla stock soared 20% in a day to hit a record $780 per share I think we’re beyond the tipping point, don’t you?
Cheers,
John Fennell