One in four new car sales in Australia’s national capital is fully electric

The Australian Capital Territory continues to lead the country for electric vehicle (EV) adoption, with new figures published by the chief minister revealing that full battery electric cars made up more than one quarter of all new car sales in February.

The new benchmark is more than double that of the next best state, and more than 2.5 times better than the national average over the month of February, but represents a long standing trend of the ACT doing better than other areas on renewables and now EVs.

The population of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) is less than 500,000, so the number of EVs sold during the month is significantly less than other states – 453. But that represented 25.9 per cent of all new car sales in the ACT in Febnruary.

The next best state was NSW with 11.1 per cent, many of them in the outer western suburbs. Western Australia is the only other state in double figures, with EVs making up 10.8 per cent of all new car sales in February.

The numbers above were published on Monday by the ACT’s chief minister, Andrew Barr on his LinkedIn account.

The ACT also leads in the uptake of wind and solar, reaching its target of “net” 100 per cent renewables by 2020, which means it has contracted enough wind and solar power to match its annual demand.

It is soon to commission the second of three big battery projects, and is seeking more wind and solar to cater for the growing demand for electricity from the electrification of transport, which it clearly is very good at, and the electrification of homes, with new homes in the ACT unable to connect to gas networks.