New research by the Electric Vehicle Council reveals Australia is on track to sell 100,000 electric vehicles, with more than 83,000 EVs currently estimated to be on our roads.
Research contained in the Australian Electric Vehicle Industry Recap 2022 report finds that of the 83,000 vehicles, 79 per cent are battery electric (BEVs) and 21 per cent plug-in hybrids (PHEVs).
Only 44,000 EVs were in circulation at the beginning of 2022 but, according to the report, EV purchases increased by 86 per cent in the last year, with 3.8 per cent of all new cars purchased being electric.
It also said the number of public chargers increased from 3413 in 2021 to 4943 in 2022, with fast chargers up from 231 to 365.
Despite the increase, Behyad Jafari, Chief Executive of the Electric Vehicle Council, warned against 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,” said Jafari.
“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 one million EVs by 2027 and around three 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.”
Jafari said Australians are early adopters who care about their environment, leaving no reason for the country 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 added.