After slow start, EV sales pick up speed

afr.com:

The shift is on. Battery electric vehicles accounted for 8 per cent of all new car sales in September, and total sales for the year to date have surged threefold on 2022.

This is despite supply still being constrained, and prices remaining high.

That 8 per cent September sales figure for “pure electrics” increases to 18 per cent if other “electrified vehicles” are counted. These include mild hybrid vehicles, which give their combustion engine a small electric boost, Toyota’s closed loop petrol-electric models, and plug-in hybrids.

Ford’s Mustang Mach-E SUV is one of several new models to hit the market soon. 

Plug-in hybrids typically drive in battery-only mode for 35 to 70 kilometres, so can be used in urban areas solely on electricity if regularly plugged in to an external power source. They can use their combustion engine for longer trips.

The encouraging increase in the sales of electric vehicles is before the full effects of a new trio of lower-cost Chinese models are felt. These three small hatchbacks – the MG4, BYD Dolphin and GWM Ora – are all priced under $40,000 before on-road costs and should contribute to about 180,000 battery electric vehicles (BEV) being on Australian roads by the end of this year.

The vast majority of those cars will still be Teslas, however, as the American company outsells all other battery electric vehicles on our market combined, despite having only two models on sale (the 3 and the Y), and despite prices starting above $60,000.

There is still a long way to go in Australia’s EV transformation. The dominant force on the market, Toyota, offers no fully electric vehicles and in September, single-handedly outsold Tesla with just one big internal combustion engine ute, the HiLux. Sales of