Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee, , 3:23:47 to 3:27:11
Officials provide statistics on the rapid acceleration of electric vehicle sales in Australia and the impact of government incentives and efficiency standards.
Topics: Electric vehicles, Emissions reduction
Speakers: Andrew Hutchinson, Michelle Ananda-Rajah, Paul Ryan, Varun Ghosh, Unknown Speaker, Mr Andrew Hutchinson
>> Um might just go to the EV uptake. EV sales are booming as you know. Um can you just talk us through the policies like the EV discount? I know we made some changes in the budget and the new vehicle efficiency standard. What role these policies and others might be playing in um spurring EV sales, but also what is the impact on fuel
>> Good afternoon, Senator. Uh Andrew Hutchinson, division head of emissions reduction division. Happy to talk to all of those things. I'm joined by my colleague, Mr. Ryan. Um, I'll give you some kind of high level uh answers and some statistics that might be helpful, but if there's anything in particular that you'd like us to go to beyond that that we're not touching on, please let us know. Um, so it's been uh a period of rapid acceleration of uptake for electric vehicles across Australia, as has been well covered in the media. um uh uptake was already accelerating through last year but um particularly with the outbreak of conflict in the Middle East has has rapidly accelerated uh to the point where electric vehicles are accounting uh across the year for 28.6% of new sales in Australia. Uh that's the period from 1 January through to 30th September 2026. That's up from 13.1% in 2025 calendar year. So obviously those figures will shift a little bit more as we head to the end of the calendar year here. uh on a monthly basis. In September 2026 alone, EVs accounted for 34.5% uh of all light vehicle sales compared to 16.1% in September 2025. Uh and in both August and September of this year, battery electric vehicles, it's a specific subset of EVs, outsold petrol only new light vehicles for the first time. So clearly um a range of incentives are applying in the marketplace and Australian consumers are responding to that. uh a lot of that we uh attribute to a combination of factors but clearly there is a strong policy signal in there uh I can't provide um a particular breakdown on what proportion we think is due to say you know fuel prices versus policy signals uh but clearly the new vehicle efficiency standard is having an effect and we can see that through a range of indirect um outcomes in the marketplace including a greater variety of electric vehicles on offer uh and much uh greater range of vehicles for lower prices Um my colleague Mr. Ryan might wish to add
>> Paul Ryan, acting branch head land and transport. Um as Mr. Hutchinson said, um the number of of EV models available in Australia has more than tripled over the last four years from around 60 models in June 2022 to more than 230 models by October 2026. Uh and as of 1st of October 2026, there are about around 20 EV models with starting prices under 40,000 now available.
>> Okay. Thanks, Jeff.
>> Thank you, Senator Ananda-Rajah. I'm now going to the coalition. Senator >> you'll take us to the break at 12:45. So, do you want to um go to Senator