Electric vehicle (EV) sales have seen a significant surge in Australia this year, surpassing the total number of sales in 2022. The Electric Vehicle Council’s annual State of EVs report revealed that 46,624 electric cars were sold in the first half of 2023, making up 8.4% of all new car sales for the year.
While this indicates progress, the country is still behind the global average, with CEO Behyahd Jafari stating that Australia is now catching up to the rest of the world after being 10 times behind just a few years ago.
The report highlighted the need for increased supply to meet climate emissions targets, with 50% of cars sold in 2030 requiring electric power. However, the report also noted that Australia’s current market lacks sufficient variety, with three models from Tesla and BYD Atto 3 dominating 68.1% of sales. To accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles, industry experts emphasize the urgency of implementing mandatory emission standards and incentives for consumers.
Charging infrastructure has shown improvement, with an increase of around 57% in public charging locations compared to the previous year. However, some residents report inadequate charging facilities in certain regions, urging the need for further expansion and better site design to avoid outages and ensure accessibility.
Despite Victoria’s relatively high EV sales and availability of charging stations, it received a policy score of 5/10 due to the introduction of an EV road user tax and cancellation of subsidies. This has led to calls for incentives to promote EV adoption and address uncertainty among investors and the industry. Additionally, the lag in electric truck policy across all Australian jurisdictions hinders opportunities for freight decarbonization.