Hybrids have continued their market surge in the sale of new vehicles, which with EVs now make up almost one in four new car sales.
The June figures from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) show hybrids have risen to 14.4 per cent of all new vehicles sales almost double last year’s June figure while EVs dropped slightly to 8.0 per cent (from 8.8 per cent in May this year).
But total sales for Ev’s so far in 2024 are 16.5 per cent up on 2023 with 50,219 new EVs on Australian roads.
Hybrid sales were partly driven by the Toyota RAV4 SUV, part of Toyota’s strategic hybrid push, at number three on the best-selling list while the Tesla Model Y is the top selling EV at number five.
RAV4’s sales in 2024 have risen almost 88 per cent to 25,404 vehicles of which 23,934 or 94.2 per cent are hybrids as Toyota became the first auto maker to sell more than 100,00 hybrids in 12 months.
The Ford Ranger held onto top spot 6,289 in June ahead of the Toyota HiLux (5,630), Toyota RAV4 (3,907), Mitsubishi Outlander (3,045) and Tesla Model Y (2,906).
Total sales for the first six months of 2024 were 632,412 vehicles, a year-to-date increase of 8.7 per cent on last year and surpassing the previous record of 605,522 in 2018.
June was however slightly lower than June 2023 as monthly sales declined by 4.2 per cent compared to last year.
FCAI Chief Executive Tony Weber said the yearly sales were encouraging considering the ongoing economic challenges.
“The end of the financial year has traditionally been a strong month for vehicle sales and achieving 632,412 sales in just six months is a testament to the resilience of the market,” he said.
“We hope to break the significant milestone of 100,000 EV sales in 2024.
“As customers increasingly turn to electric vehicles, it is critical that governments focus on the delivery of widespread recharging capability across Australia.”
Toyota was the market leader with sales of 20,903 in June, followed by Ford (9,493), Mazda (9,483), Kia (8,225) and Mitsubishi (7,723).
This article was originally published on The National Collision Repairer.