Electrical car gross sales in Australia doubled once more in January – in each the passenger automobile and SUV market – regardless of an total yr on yr decline in new car gross sales within the first month of 2022.
The newest knowledge from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries exhibits a 4.8% fall in new car gross sales in January, with the best falls in passenger vehicles (down 15.3%), and heavy business autos (-10.9%).
By gasoline sort, it was petrol-fuelled autos that noticed the best fall (-12.8%). In distinction, electrical car gross sales elevated by virtually 110% – with out counting Tesla gross sales.
Excluding Tesla, which aren’t captured in FCAI knowledge, 120 electrical sedans have been bought in January, up from 78 in the identical month final yr, and 500 electrical SUVs have been bought, up fom 213, boosted by new fashions not obtainable 12 months in the past.
The robust electrical SUV gross sales are an early indicator of the potential impression this phase could make on the auto market and Australia’s transport-related carbon emissions, to not point out extraordinarily dangerous diesel particulate matter air pollution.
That is additionally borne out within the mannequin knowledge we’re in a position to glean at first look from the newest Vfacts figures (fashions with the identical title as their combustion engine counterparts will take extra time to collect).
The caveat is in fact that these are all nonetheless tiny numbers held towards 75,000 automobile gross sales for the month, held again by a supply crunch stifled by the combination of a federal EV policy vacuum and global supply chain nightmares and chip shortages.
Out of eight instantly countable autos, 4 are SUV or crossover type autos. First on this checklist is the Mercedes-Benz EQA, a compact SUV priced from $76,800 that clearly hits the spot with 97 bought in January.
Its bigger stablemate, the EQC noticed 76 delivered to clients, whereas the equally premium iX noticed 35 items bought.
The Ioniq 5 noticed 38 delivered to clients, whereas the brand new Kia EV6 recorded 15 gross sales, largely media or take a look at drive autos. The Audi e-tron, which has been on the native marketplace for a while now noticed simply 7 bought.
The highest-of-the-price-range Porsche Taycan bought 37 in January, up from 13 a yr earlier, whereas the newly launched, comparatively brief vary Mazda MX30 bought 43 fashions.
Gross sales knowledge for different electrical autos – comparable to Australia’s most inexpensive electrical SUV – the MG ZS EV – which was the second greatest vendor in 2021, or the Volvo XC40 Pure Recharge which sits in competitors immediately towards the EQA, or the Kia Niro or Hyundia Kona weren’t obtainable, as a result of the information supplied in these circumstances doesn’t distinguish between full EVs, plug-in hybrids, delicate hybrids or petrol variations.
We have now and can attain out to Hyundai, Volvo, Mini and MG for a break down of their EV gross sales and can add a extra detailed article when all of the numbers are in.
Of different readily identifiable gross sales figures, gross sales of the Nissan Leaf fell to only Four gross sales, down from 31 this time final yr, whereas the BWM i3 fell to only 2 from 5 a yr in the past. There have been no Jaguar I-Tempo gross sales, down from Eight in the identical month final yr.
Within the month of January, plug in hybrid gross sales for SUVs greater than doubled to 283 from 126, however fell barely to 24 from 32 within the passenger automobile class.
The January numbers comply with a robust 2021, when the variety of EV gross sales jumped considerably to greater than 20,000 in 2021, largely from Tesla with some 12,094 new gross sales, down from a beforehand reported variety of greater than 15,000 after Tesla admitted to an error in its data supplied to the Electric Vehicle Council.
Bridie Schmidt is affiliate editor for The Driven, sister web site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electrical autos since 2018, and has a eager curiosity within the function that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts comparable to Obtain This Present with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electrical Automobile Discussion board. Bridie additionally owns a Tesla Mannequin Three and has it obtainable for rent on evee.com.au.