Australia set to pass 100k EV milestone

New research by the Electric Vehicle Council has revealed Australia is on track to soon pass the milestone of 100,000 electric vehicles, with more than 83,000 EVs estimated to be on our roads now.

The new research, contained in the Australian Electric Vehicle Industry Recap 2022, also finds that of the 83,000, 79 per cent are battery electric vehicles (BEVs) versus 21 per cent plug-in hybrids (PHEVs). Only 44,000 EVs were in circulation at the beginning of 2022.

The new report also notes that the number of EVs purchased increased by 86 per cent in the last year, with 3.8 per of all new cars purchased being electric.

However, Electric Vehicle Council Chief Executive Behyad Jafari warned there was no room for complacency.

“If you think you’re seeing more EVs on the road than you used to, you’re right, but if we want to hit our national emissions targets, we won’t make it on this current trajectory,” Mr Jafari said.

“To achieve the federal government’s emission target, we’ll need a near fully zero-emission vehicle fleet by 2050. To stay on track that means reaching 1 million EVs by 2027 and around 3 million by 2030.

“We can definitely hit these goals, but not without an ambitious fuel efficiency standard to expand the supply of EVs to Australia. The federal government should introduce this standard this year as a matter of urgency.”

Mr Jafari said Australians are “early adaptors by nature”, but politicians needed to help continue the momentum towards EVs.

“We care about our environment, and we don’t want to rely on foreign oil. There is no reason for us to continue to lag the world on EV take up. The enthusiasm is there in abundance, we just need our governments to continue the policy reform that makes it easy to transition away from the exhaust pipe,” he said.

The new report also notes the number of public chargers has increased from 3,413 in 2021 to 4,943 in 2022. Fast chargers are up from 231 to 365.