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. 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.
While the Australian EV market still has a long way to go to catch up to the global average, the nation is starting to head in the right direction.
The number one barrier to getting more EVs onto Australian roads today is the low supply of EVs to our market. There are 100s of EV models available overseas, and yet only are fraction of these are being supplied to Australia.
Australia is not receiving more EVs mainly because we do not have a regulation called a Fuel Efficiency Standard.
We support the Australian Government introducing a Fuel Efficiency Standard as soon as possible, so many more EVs and fuel-efficient vehicles are brought to our country for all Australians to benefit from.
"Apart from Russia, Australia is the only OECD country not to have or be in the process of developing fuel efficiency standards. The lack of standards in Australia is cited as one of the key factors impacting on the supply of EVs into Australia. Why? Because while Australia doesn’t show leadership, manufacturers will prioritise those markets that do. It’s pretty simple. It means that consumers aren’t getting the choice available internationally, and as the world moves to more efficient and cleaner cars, we risk becoming even more of a dumping ground for older technology which can’t be sold in other markets."
"Our Fuel Efficiency Standards cannot be a step forward from where we are today, they have to catch up to where the rest of the world is. We have to make that leap to catch up to where they are. We need to be on par with the rest of the world. Our friends across the ditch in New Zealand have gone from 3% to 10% in a bit over a year. So we know that that leap is entirely possible."
"Consistent across the crossbench is our very firm commitment to getting this done. We’re ready to go, the whole country’s ready to go. Let’s do this."
"We’ve got to catch up to the rest of the world quickly, as quickly as humanly possible. So having a Fuel Efficiency Standard that doesn’t get us close to meeting the European or U.S. standards doesn’t cut it. Having that ambition of a global leading standard or at least in keeping with the global leaders is really, really important."
"According to the AAA, petrol bills for families have reached, on average, over a hundred dollars for the first time ever. And there’s only really one sustainable and consistent way for us to help reduce families petrol bills. That’s by helping them use less of it in the first place, or in the case of electric vehicles, use none of it at all. The rest of the developed world has introduced for quite some time now very strict fuel efficiency standards or vehicle emission standards that encourage car makers to take their latest and best technologies to their markets first and deprioritise Australia."
"We now need politicians to lead and ensure we have the policy and incentives to actually get this transition going. And my message to the government is simple. Be bold."
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. Read more in our Australian Electric Vehicle Industry Recap 2022.