If the lithium supply glut keeping your battery metal stocks portfolio suppressed keeps you up at night, here’s something to potentially alleviate those concerns. If you take a long-term view, that is. New data suggests the sales of electric vehicles (EVs) are still on the rise globally, not to mention here in Australia, too – which is, so far, a pretty tough market for the sector. Australia’s record EV sales year According to new statistics released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), EV sales doubled to 7.2% of total new vehicle sales as Australia sold a record number of new vehicles in 2023.In total, not just EVs, 1,216,780 vehicles were sold in Australia during the year, which eclipsed the previous highest sales result of 1,189,116 – achieved in 2017. And when you add in plug-in hybrid, and hybrid vehicles, it actually brings the total for electrified vehicle sales to 16.2 per cent of new vehicle sales in Australia in 2023. Tony Weber, chief executive of FCAI, said this extraordinary result is a testament to the adaptability and resilience of both industry players and consumers alike.So when you consider that apparently only eight per cent of Australians would consider an electric vehicle as their next car purchase (according to CarExpert, citing a report from Savvy underpinned by stats from a global Deloitte survey), this fresh data is pretty encouraging. Global EV sales keep growing, tooGlobally the news is just as good.The latest research from technology market analysis firm Canalys show that sales of global electric vehicles (EVs) grew 29% and reached 13.7 million units in 2023.In 2024, Canalys predicts the growth to continue along a similar vein, with about 27% global EV sale growth, hitting 17.5 million units, with China still taking the lion’s share of the market, followed by Europe and North America.
LKE Price at posting:
12.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
