Tipping point for electric vehicles as sales boom   

Brisbane Times
December 22, 2023

Australia is approaching a tipping point for an explosion in electric vehicle sales, with growing numbers of affordable models on the market increasingly out-competing petrol cars on price.

The share of EVs in new car sales has tripled every year for the past three years as the number of models available in Australia rises and retail prices fall.   

As EV sales take off, vital charging stations are also mushrooming.


Meanwhile, the number of crucial EV charging stations is also growing rapidly – up 72 per cent in the past year, with 800 stations housing 2000 fast plugs around the country.   

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said motorists and businesses were “moving with their wallets” to EVs.

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“Just like we saw exponential growth in rooftop solar when choice increased and costs dropped, we’re starting to see that uptick in EVs and hybrids, which means cheaper running costs for households and businesses,” Bowen said.

The average EV costs around $400 in electricity per year, while annual fuel costs for a petrol car average $2400.

“More and more households and businesses are saving thousands of dollars on the upfront and running costs of their vehicles – with our EV discount making leasing EVs and plug-in hybrids cheaper than leasing petrol vehicles in many circumstances,” Bowen said.

Australia still lags the global market, where EVs reached 18 per cent of new car sales in the past year. But the local market is catching up and EVs have grown rapidly to exceed 8 per cent of new cars sold in 2023, up from just 3 per cent in 2022.




Tax discounts can make a Tesla Model 3, retailing for around $62,000, cheaper to lease per month than petrol vehicles like the Mazda 3 Astina, which sells for up to $42,000.

With the average lifespan of a passenger car in Australia being 10 years, market analyst Bloomberg New Energy Finance said EVs would need to reach 100 per cent of new car sales by 2033 for the transport sector to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.


The government’s own Intergenerational Report, released in August, forecast that without a major policy intervention, electric cars would not reach 85 per cent of the nation’s vehicle fleet until 2063.

However, Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s head of research Kobad Bhavnagri said while EV sales were currently on track to reach 50 per cent of new car sales by 2033, Australia could “absolutely” close the gap with reforms to boost their uptake.

“A fuel efficiency standard is key. It is one of the most economically efficient and scalable ways to increase adoption,” Bhavnagri said. “When policy support is introduced, you see the uptake rapidly increase and model availability increase.”

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Fuel efficiency standards limit average emissions, measured in grams of CO2 per kilometre, produced by the overall fleet of vehicles sold into the market by a manufacturer to encourage them to sell more EVs.

Australia is one of the few global industrialised countries not to have one, and the government is running late on its pledge to release an impact analysis showing the options under consideration by the end of the year.

That outline is now expected next year. But even without it, Electric Vehicle Council chief executive Behyad Jafari said EV sales have doubled every year for the past three years, gaining market share in less affluent areas as prices fall.

Early figures indicate that in the past year, the majority of EV sales occurred outside of major cities’ inner suburbs.

“The areas where people are buying electric vehicles has really changed in the last few years, with the largest areas of uptake in the outer suburbs, particularly around western Sydney,” Jafari said.

yes, good post, thanks. EVs are no longer unusual.
Almost all new cars sold have some degree of electrification. Hybrids or full electric.

whiteknight wrote on Dec 24^th, 2023 at 9:42am:


Wow. Explosions.

The real energy cost of EVs: https://www.instagram.com/project_knowledge/reel/C1mMQ3tsRcL/

And in other news - Another ship fire, this one with li-ion batteries from vietnam.

"A large cargo ship with a fire in its hold is being kept 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) offshore of an Alaska port as a precaution while efforts are undertaken to extinguish the flames, the U.S. Coast Guard said Saturday.

There were no injuries to the 19 crew members aboard the Genius Star XI, which was carrying a load of lithium-ion batteries across the Pacific Ocean, from Vietnam to San Diego, the guard’s Alaska district said in a release.

The fire started on Christmas Day in cargo hold No. 1, a spokesperson for ship owner Wisdom Marine Group said in a statement. The crew released carbon dioxide into the hold and sealed it over concerns of an explosion."

https://apnews.com/article/cargo-ship-fire-alaska-safety-precautions-38e7a4e5e88...

Jasin wrote on Dec 24^th, 2023 at 11:41am:



In my opinion - each State should have been allowed to build one large coal fired power station
which would burn high quality anthracite coal from the Bowen Basin in QLD.
That would have given us time to develop alternative energy and not
be risking super high prices and blackouts.

What happens to EVs when there is a power outages on the scale of the recent ones in Victoria?

Perhaps EVs should have a pedal system for backup.