Australians are buying electric vehicles at record levels, with sales more than doubling year on year and occurring at a rate equivalent to one EV sold every 100 seconds. A record 157,957 EV sales occurred between January and June – an 117% increase on the same period last year, according to a new report released by the Electric Vehicle Council. Comparatively, petrol and diesel vehicle sales decreased by 14% year on year, according to the council’s chief executive, Julie Delvecchio.
EVs accounted for one in four new vehicles sold in the first half of the year, up 12.1% from the first six months of 2025, the state of EVs report said. The new figures include about 104,000 battery electric vehicles and 54,000 plug-in hybrids. As of June, there were 612,000 EVs in the national vehicle fleet.
The Australian Capital Territory, where 44% of new cars registered are electric, retained its crown as the nation’s EV capital. Tarneit, in Melbourne’s west, was the individual postcode with the highest uptake. A key driver of the growing uptake has been the national vehicle efficiency standard, which requires carmakers to supply new vehicles that meet an average per-kilometre emissions target.
The standard had “substantially increased the options and the price competitiveness of EVs”, with nearly 200 EV models available in 2026, Gaur said. The council is pushing for the federal government to extend the standard beyond 2029, to align with the government’s 2035 emissions reduction target. Charging infrastructure had largely kept pace with growing EV demand, the report found, with the number of public charging locations growing to 4,268 across the country.
While Australia was no longer a global laggard compared with other electric car markets, buses and cars were “roaring ahead” of electric trucks and vans, for which sales continued to be less than 1% of their respective markets, Gaur said.
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