To EV or not to EV: That is the question
Apologies to the Bard as we take another look within the wide world of parking at electric vehicles. Regular readers may recall this was the subject of a 2017 newsletter, which took a pragmatic (and contrarian) view of the impact EVs (and autonomous vehicles) were going to have in the Australian parking market.
“Closer to home the Australian Energy Market Commission (in 2012) expected 20% of all new cars would be an electric vehicle by the end of the decade. In 2016 just 219 were sold – or about 0.00019% of the 1.15 million cars sold. A lot of catch-up footy to get to 240,000 sales by 2020.”
Fast forward to 2022 and sales were only 33,410 or 3.8% of total car sales. Of the 15.07 million registered vehicles, 83,000 (about 0.5%) were EVs.
Even Labor’s pre-election forecast that EVs would make up 89% of Australia’s 2030 new vehicle sales has recently been reduced to 27% by the Transport Department. That is a reduction of 713,000 vehicles in less than two years.
There are no new EVs available in Australia under $40,000 drive away.
The top 20 sellers list in 2022 comprised six medium SUVs, five utility vehicles, two small cars, two large SUVs, two small SUVs, one upper large SUV, one light SUV, and one medium car. It is difficult to see how EVs will make inroads into this significant part of the market.
The change of sentiment can be seen worldwide. Carmakers are for the first time offering substantial discounts to sell models that were previously subject to long waiting lists. Average discounts were 11% in the UK and 10% in the US.
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