The Electric Vehicle Council (EVC) claimed a major win today, reporting more than 100,000 electric vehicle (EV) sales in Australia so far this year – which would be a significant milestone for the takeup of battery-powered vehicles in this country.
However, the lobby group failed to disclose a major caveat: the figure includes plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs), which can be recharged externally but are also fitted with petrol engines.
In a media statement, the EVC said its own and public data, such as the monthly VFACTS report from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), showed Australians purchased more than 100,000 EVs between January and November 2024.
This figure, it claims, breaks the existing full-year record of “about 98,400 sales”, set in 2023.
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The Tesla Model 3 runs exclusively on electric power
“2024 has been a record-breaking year for EV uptake in Australia, with new sales surpassing 100,000 for the first time in a year – and that’s before the year has even ended,” said the EVC’s Head of Policy, Legal and Advocacy, Aman Gaur, in today’s media release.
However, the EVC did not make a clear distinction between battery-electric vehicles – widely accepted as the true definition of an EV – and PHEVs.
When the two figures are split from the lobby group’s monthly reports and VFACTS, the true year-to-date EV sales figure is 82,960 between January and November.
PHEVs have contributed 20,543 sales to the combined total of 103,503 externally rechargeable vehicles sold this year.
While this is higher than last year’s figure of 94,429 – achieved through the sale of 87,217 EVs and 11,212 PHEVs – it doesn’t tell the full story of Australia’s electric and plug-in hybrid market in 2024.
The 82,690 EVs sold in Australia from January to November represent a 2.8 per cent increase on the same period in 2023. This is against a market which has risen by 1.7 per cent.
EVs account for 7.3 per cent of Australia’s new vehicle market, however, their rate of sales growth has cooled significantly compared to 2023, when by the end of the year they had experienced a 161 per cent jump in sales.
The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV can drive via a petrol engine and/or electric motors
PHEVs, meanwhile, account for just 1.8 per cent of new-vehicle sales locally, but their sales growth is currently 100 per cent higher than in the same period last year.
Though PHEVs can be charged via a dedicated port and run in electric-only modes to drive limited distances, they also incorporate a petrol engine.
The EVC has not made this clear in its most recent media statements, and in its end-of-2023 ‘Australian Electric Vehicle Industry Recap’ it only clarifies its stance on combining EV and PHEV sales in the fineprint.
“Consistent with international literature, and groups such as the International Energy Agency, the EVC defines electric vehicles as any vehicle that can be plugged in to charge directly using electricity. This includes both battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs),” the fineprint reads.
The Toyota RAV4 Hybrid doesn’t need to be plugged in to provide fuel savings
Combined EV and PHEV sales still trail those of traditional hybrids, some 158,242 examples of which have been sold so far this year to make up almost 14 per cent of the overall market. This has largely been driven by market leader Toyota.
The EVC is the exclusive publisher of sales data for Tesla and Polestar in Australia, after the two specialist EV brands stopped reporting to the FCAI in July and March, respectively, due to the car industry lobby group’s stance on the then-proposed New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES).
Set to come into effect on January 1, 2025, NVES will apply penalties or credits to carmakers for exceeding or meeting fleet-wide emissions targets, with financial penalties to be enforced from July 1 next year.
The NVES has placed greater emphasis on carmakers selling cleaner and more efficient vehicles, which the EVC says will benefit buyers.
“Looking ahead to 2025, we’re optimistic that EV [including PHEV] adoption in Australia will continue to grow, especially with the introduction of the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard, which is set to deliver even more affordable and a greater choice of low and zero emissions cars,” it said in today’s press release.
MORE: VFACTS November 2024: Private sales slump, RAV4 maintains lead
