Electric cars make up one in four new Australian sales

Electric vehicles have become a mainstream part of Australia’s new-car market, with one sold approximately every 100 seconds, according to the Electric Vehicle Council. The council’s 10th annual State of Electric Vehicles report says EVs account for one in four new cars sold. Sales more than doubled over the past year, and electric cars outsold petrol and diesel vehicles for the first time in a month.

The number of electric models available to Australian buyers has reached almost 200. The council said some models now sell for less than $20,000 and that incentives such as the fringe benefits tax exemption had helped increase uptake. More than 600,000 EVs are now on Australian roads.

However, they account for only about 3% of the country’s roughly 21 million cars. The report said current uptake was not sufficient to meet emissions targets of 43% below 2005 levels by 2030 and 62% to 70% below that level by 2035. It said Australia would need about five million battery-electric cars on the road by the middle of the next decade to meet the 2035 target.

Charging infrastructure remains a challenge, with the council calling for a coordinated national plan. Freight is an even larger gap: electric trucks account for less than 1% of total truck sales, while small operators face high switching costs and limited policy support. The council described Australia as a global laggard in electric-truck adoption and said heavy freight was a major untapped opportunity in the energy transition.