Sales of electric vehicles in Australia have all but dried up completely despite record new car sales, according to the latest official figures from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.
Just 219 electric cars were sold in 2016, out of nearly 1.2 million new vehicles which left Australian dealerships. ?? !!
This represents a massive decrease from 2015, in which 942 fully electric vehicles (EVs) were sold following the launch of BMW’s i3 and Tesla’s Model S, as well as the slashing of prices on the Nissan Leaf.
Current EV market share sits at less than 0.02%, with other car sales overwhelmingly still dominated by petrol and diesel engines. Few purely electric cars remain on sale in Australia; the Tesla Model S and Nissan Leaf are the only remaining battery-powered vehicles on sale, with the compact Mitsubishi i-MIEV no longer offered.
Plug-in hybrid vehicles remain far more popular, with over 1,000 such vehicles sold in 2016, but the segment remains a tiny fraction of the overall market.
The tumbling sales of EVs reflect several barriers towards electric car ownership in Australia, chief among which are high prices, lack of charging infrastructure over long distances, and insufficient government incentives. However, the tide may be turned with the introduction of several forthcoming new models in 2017 and 2018, including the Tesla Model X and Model 3 and Audi’s Q6 e-tron. Traditional transport still going strong
In contrast to the dismal sales of electric and hybrid cars, sales boomed for traditional petrol-powered cars, with the 1.17 million new sales representing a 2% increase over 2015’s record figures. Australians with a taste for economical cars appear to prefer diesel over hybrids, with over 363,000 such cars sold – a significant 8.6% increase since last year.
As the electric vehicle market contracts, Australian tastes are shifting in a different direction; 2016 saw a continued shift in preference from large sedans and compacts towards SUVs and light commercial vehicles. SUV market share grew another 2% in size year-on-year, while light commercial vehicles such as utes grew by 1.5%.
Electric vehicle uptake in Australia held back by price, infrastructure
JUNE 12 2016
*** The Sundaraj family car was one of 942 fully electric vehicles sold in Australia last year (2015), a fraction of the 1.1 million-plus cars bought by Australians in the same period.
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