There are now officially at least 10,000 battery-electric vehicles registered in NSW, as freshly released data confirms a major new milestone for Australia’s most populous state.
According to data released by the NSW transport department, there are now 10,026 battery-electric vehicles (including all segments) on the road in NSW, and 6,144 (about 61%) of these are made by Tesla.
The data shows a number of new records: The third quarter of 2021 saw the largest number of battery-electric cars added to the NSW fleet to date, the largest number of Tesla cars in one quarter, the largest number of non-Tesla cars in one quarter.
The new figures are also significant because the latest reporting period – up to the end of September 2021 – only goes up to the time where new EV incentives, including $3,000 rebates and stamp duty waivers, were introduced.
The next quarter – the one we are currently in – will be the first full three months in which NSW drivers can access these incentives, which are capped at 20,000 vehicles.
So far in 2021 (but excluding the last two months for the aforementioned reasons!), there have been 3,650 new battery-electric vehicles registrations in NSW, 2,636 of which were Tesla cars.
The figures also reveal that battery-electric vehicles in NSW now have a 2.7% market share of new car sales.
2021 has by no means been the most successful one so far for Tesla in terms of electric market share in NSW, however – that would be 2017, when the Model X arrived with next to no competitors available on the market (and even then, it only took Tesla delivering 525 vehicles to achieve that number).
But the trend is clear: Tesla continues to be the market leader by a long shot, even as carmakers are encouraged to introduce more models, EV-supportive policy or not. Will Tesla maintain the trend by introducing the Model Y in 2022, is the question.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.