Electric vehicle ownership in Australia

The total stock of electric vehicles in Australia is approximately 23,000 as of the 2020/2021 financial year. 6,718 of these electric cars were sold in 2019 alone with the other sales occurring since 2011. 10,051 of the Australian electric vehicle stock consists of Teslas with 30% of these Teslas sold in 2020 alone. In May and June 2021, electric vehicles accounted for 2% of new car sales in Australia, with approximately 5,000 Tesla vehicles sold in the first half of 2021. This is up from 2020 when 1% of new car sales in Australia were electric vehicles. While approximately 20% of new car sales are either full-electric or hybrid electric vehicles. Nearly 2% of vehicles in Australia are either BEVs or PHEVs. However, it has been determined that approximately 66% of Australians will be driving electric cars by 2030. Moreover, 56% of Australians would consider an electric car when they next bought a vehicle. In early 2020, electric vehicle registrations nearly doubled the registrations of the previous year, showing the rapidly increasing popularity of electric vehicles in Australia. Australia's EV imports increased 500% year on year in February 2021 to almost $125m. At the current growth rate, 17,376 plug-in electric vehicles are projected to be sold in Australia in 2021. Based on early 2021 EV sales, Australia is expected to more than double 2020's total EV sales in 2021. In 2020 there were more EVs in New Zealand than Australia, despite Australia having five times the population of New Zealand. 26,000 EVs were registered in New Zealand in 2020 and the government plan to have an additional 60,000 electric vehicles on New Zealand roads by 2023, further surpassing Australia. While a similar sized country to Australia, Canada has 188,100 EVs and had 50,960 new EV sales in 2019 alone, with a 100% electric vehicle sales target by 2030.
The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV SUV was the country's original top-selling plug-in electric vehicle, with over 2,906 sold through March 2018. PHEV SUVs also account for two-thirds of PHEV sales in Australia. Specifically the Tesla Model 3 constituted 90% of Tesla sales in Australia in 2020. Tesla is also the third most trusted automotive brand in Australia. Australia is Tesla's 14th largest electric car market with Australian Tesla owners having saved 42,856,005 lbs of from the atmosphere by early 2019. Australia is also a popular electric vehicle market due to Australia's largest city, Sydney having the most ideal average temperature for maximising EV range in the world. Moreover, approximately 80% of plug-in electric vehicle sales in 2019 in Australia were pure BEVs. while the all-electric Mercedes-Benz EQC was named the "Best Car" in Australia in 2019. Unsurprisingly the Tesla Model 3 was the most viewed electric vehicle on Carsales in 2020, and the Mercedes-Benz EQC was the second most viewed electric vehicle.
Tesla and Volvo are currently the only two major car manufacturers to offer only electric cars to the Australian market from 2021. However, Cupra (owned by Volkswagen) is due to enter the Australian market in 2022 and likely only sell plug-in electric cars. Volkswagen will also only sell electric cars in Australia in 2026 at the latest, as the manufacturer will stop production of petrol-powered ICE vehicles by 2026. Volkswagen aim for 60% of the cars it produces to be electric by 2030. Mercedes-Benz also intends to only sell electric vehicles in Australia in 2039 at the latest with plans to stop the production of petrol and diesel engine vehicles by 2039. This transition will likely occur sooner due to Mercedes-Benz's commitment for 50% of its sales to be electric by 2030. This is followed by General Motors who intend to only produce and sell 100% electric vehicles by 2035. BMW also aim for 20% of its vehicle sales to be electric by 2023 and 50% of sales to be electric by 2030. BMW plan a full offering of 12 fully electric models by 2023. BMW confirmed that its Mini brand will only sell battery-powered cars by the early 2030s. Volvo Cars is only going to sell electric vehicles by 2030 Peugeot will sell an electric version of every model in its range by 2025. Honda will only sell hybrids and electric vehicles by 2022 and is aiming for 100% electric vehicles by 2040. In 2020 Mercedes parent Daimler stated they would invest $114 billion in electric vehicles. Subaru plan to have 100% electric car sales by 2030. Peugeot also plan to have an electrified version of every model in its range by 2025. While Hyundai will only sell electric cars by 2040. Toyota Australia said they plan to offer an extensive range of electric vehicles in Australia and will strive to achieve a powertrain mix that includes a form of electrification across their entire vehicle range by 2030. Toyota Australia said their approach showed their absolute commitment to reducing their footprint through the adoption of new technologies. Ford Australia also said in 2021 that more hybrid and electric models were around the corner for the Australia market.
The state of Victoria is Australia's largest and most important electric vehicle market, with the most electric vehicle purchases in Australia between 2011 and 2021. Approximately 60% of the 2,307 existing electric vehicle chargers in Australia are located in Victoria and New South Wales alone, The Liberal South Australian government aim for 100% of new car sales to be electric vehicles by 2035, and plan to ensure electric vehicles are mainstream and the "common choice" for new vehicle purchases in 2030, as well as the "default choice" by 2035.
In 2020, Victoria even stated that non-electric car owners who park in designated electric vehicle parking areas would be fined up to $330. Lexus stated they intend to showcase the electric UX 300e during the 2021 Melbourne Cup, showing their commitment to Victorian consumers, who are the second largest consumers of electric cars in Australia. Victoria also manufactures electric vehicles with a commercial electric vehicle manufacturing facility to be established in 2021, producing 2,400 vehicles per year. The Victorian company SEA Electric also manufactures electric trucks and other vehicles for domestic and international markets. $700 million has been allocated to create a Sydney and Moss Vale electric vehicle manufacturing industry and hub including buses, passenger cars and trucks from Nexport. Tesla's Australian-based Chairwoman also believes Australia could manufacture electric vehicles and revive parts of the Australian Automotive manufacturing industry. Australia supplies 75% of the lithium and 33% of the nickel to Tesla cars and Ms Denholm says “Australia is capable of supplying almost all of it!”. Overall, Victoria, ACT, NSW, South Australia and Tasmania represent the largest markets in the country for electric car sales.
In New South Wales, electric vehicle ownership is the highest in the Sydney CBD, the inner eastern suburbs and the North Shore. Similarly, Teslas in New South Wales were most common in the Sydney CBD and the inner eastern suburbs. Sydney suburbs with the most Teslas include Sydney CBD, Vaucluse, Mosman, Bondi, Rose Bay, Haymarket, Barangaroo, Centennial Park, Watsons Bay, Bellevue Hill, Lavender Bay, Darlinghurst, Dover Heights, Bronte, Castle Cove, Manly, Seaforth, Avalon, Curl Curl, Crows Nest, Baulkham Hills, Strathfield. Castlecrag, Chatswood, Hunters Hill, Lindfield, Lane Cove, Normanhurst, Saint Ives and Killara. Similarly, electric vehicles were most commonly registered in the Sydney CBD, Lane Cove, St Ives, Vaucluse, Mosman, Bellevue Hill, Point Piper and Crows Nest.
In Victoria, Teslas were the most common in the Melbourne CBD, inner southern bayside and inner eastern suburbs. EV purchasers in Melbourne's bayside south-eastern and eastern suburbs have also applied for the most Victorian Government EV subsidies. However, the top suburbs which have claimed the most subsidies include Point Cook, Glen Waverley and Mount Waverley. While the Northern Territory had the smallest uptake of Teslas of all the states. Electric car manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz have specifically catered to these high electric vehicle owner suburbs by employing electric vehicle sales agents in the nearest dealerships.
Australia has a significant electric vehicle manufacturing industry focusing on electric utility vehicles, electric buses, electric passenger cars, electric micro mobility (scooters), electric motorbikes, electric emergency aircraft, electric light aircraft, electric boats and electric ferries. Notable Australian electric vehicle manufacturers and researchers include SEA Electric, ACE EV Group, Nexport (TrueGreen Mobility), AusMV, Red Automotive Technologies, Voltra, Bustech, Raine, Savic, Fonzarelli (Fonz Moto), BajaBoard, Evolve Electric Skateboards, AVE Robotics, SenSen Networks, Precision Buses, Mearth Electric Scooters, Zoox (Amazon), AutoCRC, Vmoto, Evolution, Jaunt, Zoomo, Augusta Golf Cars, EcoTeq, e-Motion Concepts, EMoS, EV Automotive (EV-A), Austal, Impact Boats, SkyBus, Janus Electric, Traction EV, DNS Electric Vehicles, Carbon Revolution, EV North, AMSL Aero and MagniX. These companies sell both vehicles to the domestic and international markets. ACE EV also have their own V2G bi-directional charging technology. ACE EV Group currently assemble their electric vehicles in Adelaide with Aldom and are raising $5 million to produce 15,000 EVs a year by 2025, at the latest. Aldom Motor Body Builders and ACE-EV plan to build 15 vehicle-to-grid capable “Transformer” EVs by late 2021 under a new business named Aldom Electric Vehicle Manufacturing. The companies plan to produce 15,000 vans, utes and cars a year by 2025. 50% of the parts to manufacture ACE EV Group's electric vehicles are sourced from Australia. TrueGreen Mobility and Foton Bus Australia also formed a partnership and plan to manufacture hydrogen-powered FCEV buses in NSW by Q1 2022. TrueGreen Mobility also plan to build an Australian made electric ute in the future. Bus manufacturer Volgren which is based in Melbourne, also produce 87% Australian made electric buses which are used in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Volgren is set to build approximately 50 new electric buses to be on Sydney roads in 2021. Australian company GB Auto also expect to distribute 2,000 Tembo branded all-electric ute conversion kits in Australia by 2025. Australian based Evee and Tesla Taxi allow electric vehicle owners to rent their car to other Australians. Sonnen also offer a low cost electric vehicle rental service to its home battery customers which is similar to AGL's EV subscription offering in major capital cities. Ride-hailing rental startup Splend will also make 50% of their Australian vehicles (750 cars) electric by late 2022. Lime, Bird, Beam, Neuron Mobility as well as the Australian dock-less electric scooter ride sharing start-up RIDE exist in various states. Beam have 6,000 vehicles active across Australia and New Zealand. In the ACT, 4,035 e-scooter trips were taken per day up until September 2020 which shows the popularity of this mode of transportation. In Brisbane an estimated 5000 e-scooter trips have been taken every day. Australia's trucking industry also uses swappable batteries for travel between Brisbane and Sydney. In 2019, Macquarie Group partnered with BYD to bring electric trucks to the Australian market. Macquarie Group called on industries with large transportation fleets, such as the mining sector, to also convert to electric vehicles. Victoria-based mining supplier Safescape has had mining EVs since 2018. While BHP are partnering with Caterpillar to develop electric mining trucks. Qantas has a partnership with Tesla whereby Qantas frequent flyers can attend exclusive events showcasing Teslas. Qantas members can also charge their electric vehicles while they fly.
Electric vehicle charging infrastructure operators and manufacturers in Australia include EVUp, Chargefox, Evie Networks, Linga Network, JET charge, JOLT Charge, Tritium, Chargepoint, EVSE, eGo Dock, Keba, NHP Electrical Engineering and EVERTY. The Federal Government is also assisting oil companies to diversify into electric vehicle charging infrastructure and hydrogen refuelling stations as demonstrated by Caltex with Evie Networks. The majority of these charging stations from various operators can be found on the PlugShare Australia map. Electric vehicle charger operators have also partnered with McDonalds, Woolworths, Coles, Hungry Jacks, Dan Murphys, IKEA, Puma Energy, Caltex and others to ensure suitable charging locations across Australia. Velocity Points can also be earned by EV owners through charging stations at 7-Eleven. Insurance providers such as RACV, RACT, NRMA, RAC, RACQ and RAA have also been key contributors to the expansion of the national electric vehicle charger network as well as Wilson Transformers. NRMA provide an electric vehicle driver training service as well. Poncho Insurance also provides competitive Tesla insurance for Australians. Australia also has Green Car Loans offered in partnership with the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, whereby EV and low emission vehicle owners pay a reduce rate as low as 2.89% on their car loan. Bank First, Bank Australia, Loans.com.au, Transport mutual credit union and LCU all offer green car loans. 20,000 electric vehicle owners in Australia use the Chargefox electric vehicle charging network which is the largest in Australia. Chargefox was also the first electric vehicle charger provider to offer 5 years of free unlimited charging with new electric car purchases from Volvo, BMW, Nissan, MG, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, Audi and Porsche. Tesla also offer 1,500 kilometers of free supercharging for newly referred customers and the Tesla owner referee.
The 2018 Electric Vehicle Council report Recharging the Economy, stated a high adoption of electric vehicles has the potential to boost GDP by $3 billion and support almost 14,000 new jobs by 2030, and has other positive economic effects including lower fuel costs, better fuel security, improved public health and growth of EV supply chains. Introducing better fuel efficiency standards like the Euro 6 fuel standard would not only improve air quality in cities but would also save $500 off the motorist's bill every year. Australian household would also save between $2000 and $4000 in petrol or diesel if they made the switch to EVs. Australian company EVUp and the Australian Electric Vehicle Association created an Idle Off Project to educate school children on the dangers of air pollution from idling vehicles. A federal government-commissioned report had suggested Australian electric vehicle sales could reach 50% by 2030 under the right market conditions. In 2019, it was stated that 61% of all passenger vehicle sales in Australia were expected to be electric by 2040. Federal Government modelling had also suggested electric vehicles would account for 65% of new car sales by 2050, based on current policies. Furthermore, in another study electric vehicles were projected to account for 70% to 100% of new vehicle sales by 2040 and at least 30% of the vehicle fleet in Australia. In fact, if electric vehicle sales were to continue to double each year until 2028, electric vehicles would represent more than 50% of new car sales in Australia by 2028. However, at the current growth rate, electric cars will account for 13% of new car sales by 2030 in Australia. This is half of the federal government's most recent projection of 26% of car sales to be electric by 2030. The Western Australian government owned water utility, WA Water Corporation also uses electric vehicles in its fleet. IKEA Australia has committed to a 100% electric vehicle fleet by 2025 with a total of 350 electric vehicles. 10% of IKEA Australia's fleet already compromises electric vehicles. Domino's Australia uses eMOS electric delivery vehicles in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. While Woolworths, Australia Post and Linfox use a range of electric vehicle delivery vehicles. Fortescue Metals’ will also operate solely 100% electric vehicles by 2040. SeaLink Travel Group intend to have 55 electric tourist buses by mid 2022. Powershop and its parent company Meridian Energy also use electric vehicles. AGL is an EV100 member and has committed to transition its 400 corporate vehicles to 100% electric vehicles by 2030. AGL also offer an electric vehicle subscription service available in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane with its own electric vehicle owner power plan. AGL also intends to provide free fast chargers to 250 battery-electric vehicle (BEV) owners as part of a trial between early-2021 to mid-2023, to assess EV charging and Vehicle to Grid (V2G) technology across Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland. Nissan is assisting the ACT government in trialing Vehicle to Grid (V2G) technology and will offer V2G for all Nissan EV owners by the end of 2021. Origin Energy have already supplied 150 electric vehicle chargers to EV owners to conduct similar trials. Optus, Discover Energy, SenSen Networks and Watt & Well partner with ACE-EV plan to trail V2G technology. Energy providers such as Powershop, Red Energy, Ovo Energy and AGL all offer electric vehicle owner power plans and incentives. Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes and Simon Hackett were few of the first Australians to purchase a Tesla Model S in 2015.
By 2025, Hyundai plan to offer 44 electrified vehicles in Australia of which 23 will BEV models. This would ensure Hyundai offer the widest range of EVs to Australians with the aim of becoming a leading Australian EV provider. Volvo will only sell PHEVs, BEVs and hybrid vehicles to the Australian market from mid-2021. The Volvo XC40 Recharge electric car accounted for one in three XC40 SUVs sold by the Swedish-Chinese carmaker in 2021 and 21% of all its sales for the month of September 2021. The electric Taycan also accounts for 50% of Porsche sales in Australia in 2021. In 2021, the Porsche Taycan had outsold the Porsche 911 in Australia. To the end of August, sales of both BMW battery-electric and hybrid vehicles were up 172 per cent compared with the same period last year. Registrations of battery-electric and plug-in hybrid BMW and MINI models saw a 216 per cent year-to-date increase to the end of August 2021. Toyota accounts for 85% of Australia's more than 60,000 hybrid vehicle sales as of 2020 and 90% of sales in 2021. As of 2021, Toyota had sold more than 200,000 hybrid cars in Australia with the majority sold between 2018 and 2020.<ref name":212" /> Victoria is a significant market for hybrid vehicles with 57,000 hybrid car owners in the state.<ref name":212" /> The hybrid Toyota RAV4, Yaris and Camry were the most popular with Toyota's Kluger Hybrid due to arrive in June 2021.<ref name":103" /> Toyota Australia stated the addition of the Toyota Kluger Hybrid showed the brands commitment to a sustainable future in Australia.<ref name":103" />

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