Electric cars had a massive year in 2019. While annual car sales suffered a 7.8% decrease, the lowest recorded number of annual sales since reporting began in 2011, electric cars saw a 203% jump in sales from 2018.
Newly released figures from the Electric Vehicle Council show that 6,718 electric vehicles were sold in Australia in 2019, up from 2,216 in 2018. This should come as no surprise considering we saw the release of the Tesla Model 3, the Nissan Leaf, the Hyundai Kona Electric, and the Hyundai Ioniq Electric during the previous twelve months.
As CEO of the Electric Vehicle Council, Behyad Jafari was quoted as saying that while the number of EV sales was promising, Australia still had some catching up to do.
“The good news is that the number of Australians buying EVs is surging despite a lack of government incentives or support,” Mr Jafari said.
“The bad news is that even with this strong growth, EVs still one represent 0.6 percent of sales. That compares poorly to 3.8 percent of sales in Europe and 4.7 percent of sales in China."
“If the Australian EV market had the same incentives and support as the EU and China, we would be talking about some 50,000 new EVs on our roads. That would actually start delivering significant benefits in terms of cleaning our air, lowering our carbon emissions, and lowering our dependence on foreign oil."
“These new sales figures show that Australians are enthusiastic early adopters. We love seizing the advantages of new tech, and we love getting on board first. So even without government support we are still eager to embrace the myriad advantages of EVs.”
With the number of electric cars on our roads increasing, it’s no wonder the number of electric car charging stations is on the rise. Publicly available charging stations have a direct correlation to the number of EVs sold with charging infrastructure seeing a huge increase in Australia of 143% between June 2018 and June 2019. So, the good news is there is no shortage of places you can charge your vehicle.
If you’re looking for a new car and want to go electric, a Novated Lease might be for you. For more information on the benefits of Novated Lease and whether it’s the right choice for you, make sure you speak to one of our team members or head to our Novated Lease Calculator to see how Easi can help you.
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