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EV sales in Australia
The rise of EVs from China
Extracts from “Electrifying: EV sales are multiplying as fossil fuels lose control of Australia’s car market” by Ray Wills http://www.thedriven.io published 4 June 2026
EV sales overall are up more than 110 per cent year-on-year, a doubling that reflects both rising demand and a rapidly widening model mix. Every month, more Australians discover that the supposed compromises of EVs were mostly theatre; the weekend, it turns out, was never really at risk.
Country-of-origin data reinforces the point.
China is now firmly the number-one source of new vehicles in Australia, well ahead of Japan and pulling further away.
Since the post‑COVID bounce in 2021, petrol and diesel volumes have been sliding on a clear downward trend, punctuated by the familiar EOFY “dead cat” jumps seeking moonlight.
Even those June bounces in 2023 and 2025 only delivered lower plateaus afterwards, as buyers shifted into hybrids, plug‑ins and BEVs. BEV sales are now close to overtaking the combined hybrid sales including PHEVs, as they first tried to do in 2022.
The old oil era is fading into the twilight, even as the solar‑powered sun finally rises over the showroom, tomorrow.
The long-run picture is no summer fling; combustion is in a decidedly not slow fade-out to the horizon.
