Electric vehicle sales in Australia reach new milestones
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The Electric Vehicle Council released a report detailing a decade of progress for electric vehicles in Australia, showing a rapid increase in adoption and infrastructure.
The report notes that Australians are buying a new electric vehicle every 100 seconds. Sales of both battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids doubled between the first half of 2025 and the second half of 2026.
The council observes that the ratio of battery electric vehicles to plug-in hybrids currently sits at 2 to 1, which aligns with trends in many other countries. The country is working toward a goal of having 5 million battery electric vehicles on the road by 2035. To reach this, the council says uptake must continue to accelerate. Currently, there are 612,000 battery electric vehicles on Australian roads.
While public charging infrastructure has kept pace with demand because most people charge at home, the council warns that high demand for public charging and potential new road user charges could create future challenges. The report also identifies a gap in the commercial market. While 32 percent of new buses sold in the first half of 2026 were battery electric, only 1 percent of new vans and trucks were electric.
Julie Delvecchio, the CEO of the Electric Vehicle Council, describes the lack of electric commercial vehicles as a major unclaimed opportunity. Additionally, the council notes that the government extended the Fringe Benefit Tax exemption for electric vehicles until 2029.
