Photo taken on March 20, 2020, shows a car at the Exhibition Park in Canberra, Australia. (Photo by Chu Chen/Xinhua)
Electric vehicles (EVs) accounted for 3.39 percent of all new Australian car sales in the 12 months to September, with an increase of 65 percent from 2021, according to the latest State of Electric Vehicles report.
CANBERRA, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Sales of electric vehicles in Australia have increased 65 percent over the last 12 months.
The latest State of Electric Vehicles report, which was released by the Electric Vehicle Council (EVC) on Friday, electric vehicles (EVs) accounted for 3.39 percent of all new Australian car sales in the 12 months to September.
It represents an increase of 65 percent from 2021, when 2.05 percent of new cars sold in Australia were EVs.
In the same period, the number of public fast and ultra-fast charger locations across Australia increased by 22 percent to 350.
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) is leading the country's transition to electric transport, with EVs accounting for 9.5 percent of all new car sales compared to 0.8 percent in the Northern Territory (NT).
Photo taken on March 20, 2020, shows cars waiting in line at the Exhibition Park in Canberra, Australia. (Photo by Chu Chen/Xinhua)
However, the report noted Australia had a long way to go to catch up to the rest of the world on EV sales.
"It's great to see so much momentum behind EV sales in Australia, but to put our 3.4 percent in context, Germany sits at 26 percent, the UK at 19 percent, and California at 13 percent. The global average is 8.6 percent so Australia has a long, long way to come," Jake Whitehead, EVC head of Policy, said in a media release.
"We know from all the research that Australians are keen to get behind the wheel of an EV, but they just aren't getting the access that other markets get. Because our governments have lagged behind the world on EV policy, Australia is still something of an afterthought for global EV manufacturers. So Australian consumers have a smaller range of EVs to choose from and they are also being forced to wait for many months or even years to take delivery of new vehicles," he added.■
