EV sales are at their lowest quarterly total since 2022 as buyers turn to hybrids for convenience and longer range.
Leading motoring advocacy group , the Australian Automobile Association’s quarterly update of EV Index also shows internal combustion engines’ (ICE) share of the Australian market continues to decline as new technology takes over.
While new EV sales have declined below 20,000 new vehicles for the first time since the start of 2023, hybrids now sell almost 50,000 vehicles per quarter, a continual growth pattern over the last seven quarters.
SEE MORE: Car news
During the 3rd quarter of 2024 battery electric vehicle sales declined by 25.10 per cent (from 25,353 to 18,990).
Plug-in hybrids have also grown continuously over this period and though coming from a low base, now sell four times the new vehicles they did in 2022 at 7232 vehicles per quarter.
The AAA EV Index analyses all new light vehicle sales across the country in conjunction with FCAI data released on a monthly basis.
The overall new vehicle market had also contracted 7.60 per cent for the quarter (from 312,889 to 289,098) including the 9.16 per cent drop in ICE vehicles whose market share declined by 1.27 per cent.
Hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (HFCEVs) still accounted for a tiny fraction of sales with only three sold in the quarter and a total of ten recorded in 2024.
The AAA noted that hybrids now outsold EVs in Canberra, once its strongest market.
Not-so plugged in
But it also noted the fluctuations in government incentives, including that plug-in hybrids are currently exempt from fringe benefits tax but that benefit will end on 1 April 2025.
While some jurisdictions offer stamp duty and registration discounts for EVs, government rebates for EV purchases have now ceased in all states except Western Australia.
WA had the lowest September 2024 quarter decline in BEV market share among all jurisdictions (-0.58 per cent compared to -1.53 per cent nationally).
Electric Vehicle Council Head of Legal, Policy and Advocacy Aman Gaur says the recent figures belied the longer term growth in EVs which had climbed from less than 1 percent of all new car sales in 2019 to nearly one in ten today, when counted with PHEVs.
“While these opportunities are encouraging, there remains a long road ahead for widespread EV adoption in Australia. The premature withdrawal of incentives for electric vehicles in several states coupled with lingering concerns about EVs is stifling rapid uptake,” Gaur says.
“Governments must continue implementing targeted programs that make it easier and more affordable for Australian households and businesses to transition to electric vehicles. At the same time, the industry must continue to address misconceptions about EVs to attract the next wave of adopters.”
This article was originally published on the National Collision Repairer