Source : THE AGE NEWS
For all the robust enthusiasm, dinner party discussions, public policy debate and focus on climate change, Australians are embarrassingly behind most of the Western world where the proverbial rubber hits the road – sales of electric vehicles.
It’s been another year of solid global sales growth for electric cars, putting the industry on track to surpass 20 million cars in 2025, which is more than a quarter of all cars sold worldwide.
But Australia is punching well below its weight.
Australia is punching below its weight when it comes to electric car sales.Credit: iStock
There will be a temptation to just blame the ripple effect of public disdain for Elon Musk (and therefore his cars). Tesla’s market share has been falling from what in 2023 was 68 per cent of EVs sold to only 8.3 per cent in April this year, just ahead of the release of the company’s new Model Y.
Just this week, an emotionally bruised Musk renewed his commitment to a hands-on running of Tesla and a significant step back from his part-time/full-time government efficiency gig for President Donald Trump.
The public relations and governance backlash over his involvement in the Trump administration has been bruising for Tesla, and therefore Musk’s personal wealth, and shareholders will be expecting him to reapply his focus on the company and away from politics.
But Australians are not suffering from lack of choice. We have no fewer than 90 EV models to pick from in this market, including six owned by the popular Chinese-owned BYD, which is aggressively expanding here.
Still, EV sales growth is not going to script. In 2023, the Federal Chamber of Automotive industries had forecast the share of electric cars in the Australian market would reach 14 per cent this year. But in April, the FCAI members reported battery electric vehicle sales that made up just 5.9 per cent of the total car market in Australia.
It feels like Australia’s enthusiasm for EVs is stuck in reverse.
In China, 50 per cent of new cars sold are electric, in the US it’s 10 per cent, but expectations for electric vehicles to make up 20 per cent of all new cars sold worldwide over the next five years have been radically downgraded by the International Energy Agency.
BYD is aggressively pushing into Australia.Credit: Joseph Plumb
Meanwhile in Europe, despite a recent stagnation in sales growth, electric cars’ market penetration has already reached 20 per cent.
In Australia, Tesla is still the largest seller of electric cars, but its dominance is waning as its sales here and in other markets have fallen.
There’s a number of financial and practical reasons that Australians appear to have lost the gusto for electric vehicles, but for the most part, it appears like the wave of early adopters has petered out.
This pioneering bunch was less sensitive to price.
Car manufacturers will now need to work harder to trigger the next wave of EV converts, even as the prices of electric vehicles are becoming more affordable.
According to the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria, the arrival of cheaper models in Australia means you can now hit the road in an electric small hatch or mid-size SUV for a similar price as a top-of-the-range Toyota Corolla, Mazda3 or Hyundai i30.
But even if EVs are coming down in price, the demand will hit a roadblock if they remain less convenient than petrol guzzlers.
FCAI chief executive Tony Weber said the main reason why consumers are slamming the brakes on new EV sales is the lack of recharging infrastructure. This is measured by the proportion of recharging stations relative to what the industry refers to as ‘the carpark’ – the total number of electric cars on the road.
He also noted that Australians like to drive larger cars which are, in general, harder to electrify.
Australians talk a big game on climate change, and we are considered a nation of early technology adopters. But on EVs, it looked increasingly like momentum has stalled.
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