Australian EV lobby group claims major milestone… with a catch

The Electric Vehicle Council (EVC) claimed a significant win today, reporting greater than 100,000 electric vehicle (EV) sales in Australia thus far this 12 months – which can be a major milestone for the takeup of battery-powered vehicles on this country.

Nonetheless, the lobby group didn’t disclose a significant caveat: the figure includes plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs), which may be recharged externally but are also fitted with petrol engines.

In a media statement, the EVC said its own and public data, similar to the monthly VFACTS report from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), showed Australians purchased greater than 100,000 EVs between January and November 2024.

This figure, it claims, breaks the prevailing full-year record of “about 98,400 sales”, set in 2023. 

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“2024 has been a record-breaking 12 months for EV uptake in Australia, with recent sales surpassing 100,000 for the primary time in a 12 months – and that’s before the 12 months has even ended,” said the EVC’s Head of Policy, Legal and Advocacy, Aman Gaur, in today’s media release.

Nonetheless, the EVC didn’t make a transparent distinction between battery-electric vehicles – widely accepted because the true definition of an EV – and PHEVs.

When the 2 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 12 months.

While that is higher than last 12 months’s figure of 94,429 – achieved through the sale of 87,217 EVs and 11,212 PHEVs – it doesn’t tell the total 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 identical period in 2023. That is against a market which has risen by 1.7 per cent.

EVs account for 7.3 per cent of Australia’s recent vehicle market, nonetheless, their rate of sales growth has cooled significantly in comparison with 2023, when by the top of the 12 months that they had experienced a 161 per cent jump in sales.

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 identical period last 12 months.

Though PHEVs may be charged via a dedicated port and run in electric-only modes to drive limited distances, in addition they incorporate a petroleum engine.

The EVC has not made this clear in its most up-to-date media statements, and in its end-of-2023 ‘Australian Electric Vehicle Industry Recap’ it only clarifies its stance on combining EV and PHEV sales within the fineprint.

“Consistent with international literature, and groups similar to the International Energy Agency, the EVC defines electric vehicles as any vehicle that may be plugged in to charge directly using electricity. This includes each battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs),” the fineprint reads.

Combined EV and PHEV sales still trail those of traditional hybrids, some 158,242 examples of which have been sold thus far this 12 months to make up almost 14 per cent of the general 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 2 specialist EV brands stopped reporting to the FCAI in July and March, respectively, resulting from the automobile industry lobby group’s stance on the then-proposed Latest Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES).

Set to return 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 12 months.

The NVES has placed greater emphasis on carmakers selling cleaner and more efficient vehicles, which the EVC says will profit buyers.

“Looking forward to 2025, we’re optimistic that EV [including PHEV] adoption in Australia will proceed to grow, especially with the introduction of the Latest Vehicle Efficiency Standard, which is ready to deliver even more cost-effective and a greater alternative of low and 0 emissions cars,” it said in today’s press release.