ACT led electric vehicle sales per capita in 2022

The Australian Capital Territory led the country’s battery-electric vehicle (BEV) adoption on a per capita basis last year.

Based on September 2022 Census data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, a new BEV was sold for every 0.00279th person in the ACT with a total of 1280 examples registered, as reported by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.

The capital currently benefits from EV incentives, including; two-years' free registration, stamp duty exemption, and transit lane access – and plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles from 2035 in a similar move to Europe.

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However, the most EVs added on Australian roads were, unsurprisingly, in the more populous eastern states – led by New South Wales (11,098), Victoria (9496), and Queensland (6696) trailing behind.

Only 68 and 571 BEVs were sold in the Northern Territory and Tasmania respectively, though.

The Tesla Model 3 sedan remained the best-selling BEV in Australia (10,877) – despite the introduction of the Model Y SUV twin (8717), cheaper BYD Atto 3 (2113), and Polestar 2 liftback (1524) last year.

A total of 33,713 BEVs were registered in 2022, which made up 4.3 per cent of the Australian new-car market share.

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2022 Australian BEV sales by state

Hybrids still dominate, PHEVs fall behind

All Australian states (private and business buyers) overwhelmingly still prefer traditional hybrid models as an alternative low-emission powertrain, with 80,584 units sold last year.

Hybrids represented eight per cent of the new-car market share – spearheaded by Toyota’s venerable hybrid lineup, including; the RAV4 Hybrid medium SUV (26,547), Corolla Hybrid small car (17,585), and Kluger Hybrid large SUV (8413).

Meanwhile, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), which combine a larger battery with a petrol engine for longer EV-only driving range, continued to fall behind both traditional hybrids and BEVs.

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Only 5832 PHEVs were sold last year, which made up just one per cent of the new car market.

The MG HS Plus EV medium SUV (1554), Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross PHEV small SUV (926), and Volvo XC60 Recharge PHEV (591) were the top-sellers.

Last year, the industry continued to be plagued by component supply chain and shipping constraints – exacerbated by the war on Ukraine, which shut or slowed down some supplier’s factories.