The latest Electric Vehicle Council’s State of EVs report shows a huge boom in EV sales, but Australia is still miles behind due to policy.
EVs now represent 3.39% of all vehicle sales, a 65% increase on 2021, says the report.
The ACT leads the nation on sales, with 9.5% of all new vehicles sales being EVs. It is followed by New South Wales (3.7%), Victoria (3.4%), Queensland (3.3%), Tasmania (3.3%), Western Australia (2.8%), South Australia (2.3%), and the Northern Territory (0.8%).
The 56-page report again grades Australia’s jurisdictions on their approach to EVs, and while no single government leads on every policy area, the ACT and NSW lead overall (8/10); followed by federal (7/10); Queensland (6/10); Victoria (5/10); SA, NT and WA (4/10), and Tasmania (3/10).
There has been a 22% increase in fast and ultra-fast charger locations since 2021, with around 350 chargers now available to the public, the report states.
While the increased enthusiasm is welcome, Australia still needs a strong National EV Strategy to catch up to the rest of the world, says EVC policy head Jake Whitehead.
“It’s great to see so much momentum behind EV sales in Australia, but to put our 3.4% in context – Germany sits at 26%, the UK at 19%, and California at 13%,” he adds.
“The global average is 8.6%, so Australia has a long, long way to come.”
Whitehead says research shows Australians are keen to get behind the wheel of an EV, “but they just aren’t getting the access that other markets get”.
“Because our governments have lagged the world on EV policy, Australia is still something of an afterthought for global EV manufacturers.
“So Australian consumers have a smaller range of EVs to choose from and they are also being forced to wait for many months or even years to take delivery of new vehicles.”
Whitehead says the new federal government understands the opportunities for EVs and is working on a genuine EV strategy, although it will need include a range of measures with fuel efficiency standards high on the list.
“If Australia does not introduce fuel efficiency standards on par with the EU and the US we will continue to lag the world by a huge margin,” warns Whitehead.
“Given transport makes up 19% of Australia’s emissions we also can’t say we’re serious about achieving our 2030 emission reduction target without fuel efficiency standards.”
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