Hybrid and EVs sales jumped in 2020, but Australia still has a very dirty car fleet

Governments buyers and fleet operators are leading Australia’s accelerating switch to electric vehicles – but overall uptake is still lagging behind European counterparts and the country has a very dirty car fleet, new analysis from the National Transport Commission has detailed

In a new report published by on Friday – which examined the emissions intensity of Australia’s transport fleet – the commission found that uptake of battery electric and hybrid had grown in 2020 – despite the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, most of the increase came in hybrids, with 58,595 new hybrid vehicles sold and 6,900 all-electric models purchased last year.

The National Transport Commission said that fleets had been a key driver of demand for electric and hybrid vehicles, noting that nine out of ten new taxis and commercial passenger vehicles purchased in Australia last year were either hybrid or all-electric models.

The shift to electrified vehicles helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector, and the emissions intensity of Australia’s travel, but the country is still not taking advantage of the full opportunities being siezed by other countries, particularly in Europe, when it came to low emissions transport.

“With increasing makes and models of greener vehicles available, governments, businesses and consumers can reduce emissions with their purchases,” National Transport Commission spokesperson Mandi Mees said.

“Our analysis shows that if people who bought new vehicles in 2020 had chosen the best-in-class for emissions performance, Australia’s average carbon emissions intensity would have dropped by 93 per cent for new passenger cars and light SUVs, and by 50 per cent for new heavy SUVs and light commercial vehicles.”

Tesla continued to dominate the Australian all-electric vehicle market, selling almost as many vehicles as all other manufacturers combined in 2020.

Last year, Tesla sold an estimated 3,430 vehicles across all models – with a total of 3,470 cars sold across all other brands. The Mitsubishi Outlander (a plug in hybrid), the Nissan Leaf and Hyundai’s Kona and Ioniq models were the most popular non-Tesla models.

Meanwhile, Toyota dominated sales of hybrid models, with the RAV4, Corolla and Camry hybrid options all proving popular.

While purchases of electric models had achieved continued year-on-year growth, they still represented a smaller portion of Australia’s overall small vehicle fleet, currently making up around 0.12 per cent of Australia’s 18.1 million passenger vehicles.

Commercial and government fleets were leading the shift to electric and hybrid vehicles. Still, uptake amongst private owners had not yet achieved the same level of momentum, reflecting the ongoing challenges in Australia relating to the upfront cost of vehicles, the lack of model availability and a dearth of supportive government policies – particularly at a national level.

The report found that Australian uptake of lower emissions vehicles significantly lagged European counterparts.

In 2020, less than half of new vehicles purchased in Australia had an emissions intensity of 160 grams per kilometre. This compared to more than 90 per cent of passenger vehicles sold in Europe that were below the same emissions benchmark.

“In 2019, emissions intensity for passenger cars in European countries ranged from 60 g/km in Norway to 133 g/km in Luxembourg. The overall average emissions intensity for the 30 European countries was 122 g/km. Australia’s emissions intensity was significantly higher at 150 g/km,” the report says.

Australia’s vehicle emissions intensity ranked significantly higher than all European countries, and this trend was reflected across virtually all vehicle segments. Whether it came to hybrids, sedans, SUVs or four-wheel drive vehicles – Australian models had higher average emissions intensities than their European equvialents.

The commission pointed to a lack of supporting government initiatives in Australia, particularly at a federal level, for lower electric model uptake, as well as softer fuel quality standards that saw Australians using lower quality cheaper fuels – that also allowed petrol and diesel fuels to maintain lower prices – compared to Europe. These market differences meant that Australians had less incentive to switch to all-electric or hybrid vehicle models.

“Emissions from new vehicles in European countries tend to be lower than Australia. There are a number of reasons for this, including fewer measures in Australia to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and emissions intensity,” the report adds.

“Consumer preferences also contribute to the difference in emissions performance between Australia and Europe. For example, European consumers purchase more small vehicles compared with Australian consumers and prefer manual transmission to automatic transmissions.”