By early adopters’ sales of electric vehicles in Australia are faltering. Tesla is far and away the biggest seller in the EV market, but Australian sales have fallen more than 14 per cent this year. Hybrid vehicles are now outselling electric cars prompting manufacturers to ramp up hybrid offerings to meet demand.
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00:00EVs used to outperform hybrids, but this year it's the other way around.
00:06And when we're looking at the data now, the sales of new hybrid vehicles have almost doubled
00:12in Australia so far this year.
00:14The number of EVs sold is about half of that.
00:18Now Australian buyers are conscious about their carbon emissions, but when it comes
00:22to purchasing EVs, they've got a few questions, you know, where do I charge my car?
00:28How far can I go?
00:29So a bit of a range anxiety there, and also cost of living is biting, they are relatively
00:35more expensive than other cars, and also the state government subsidies are phasing out.
00:42So that's a bit of a dampening effect there as well.
00:47So another reason is the availability of car models that Australians want to buy.
00:53Australians love big vehicles, utes and SUVs, but not many of them are available in pure
01:01EVs.
01:02Let's take a listen.
01:03Not all cars come in EV that are fit for purpose for consumers' needs.
01:09There is the total cost of ownership of an EV, it's a consideration for many purchases.
01:16And there's also the recharging infrastructure that needs to be put in place so that consumers
01:21have the confidence that they can drive their EV and be supported with recharging.
01:25We know that some state governments have set very ambitious targets.
01:29For example, the New South Wales government.
01:32So they are looking at about 50% of new vehicle sales by 2030 to be EVs.
01:40So that's very ambitious.
01:42And a lot of state governments, especially on the East Coast, have similar targets.
01:46Now with that stalling EV uptake, which is currently sitting at 9.6%, so the industry
01:52is worried that state governments may miss their targets.
01:58Now while the federal government has yet to set a target on new vehicle, electric vehicle
02:05sales, it has introduced a national vehicle efficiency standard which is going to be effective
02:11from January 1st next year, which will stop Australia to be a dumping ground for polluting
02:17cars from car manufacturers.
02:19Globally, some legacy automakers have scaled back their electrification plans due to the
02:26slowing demand.
02:28But one manufacturer in Australia, Volvo, has pledged to dump all the petrol cars by
02:352026, which is a pretty ambitious target.