Demand for electric vehicles continues to climb in Australia but overall the auto industry is only marginally ahead of last year’s market performance.

The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries has released the latest sales data with demand for new cars and trucks in April rising to 82,137, a 1.3 per cent improvement on the same month in 2022.

That took year-to-date sales to 351,139, an improvement of 2.2 per cent.

Electric vehicles accounted for eight per cent of all sales last month, up from 1.1 per cent in April last year, and if vehicles with some form of electrification, such as hybrids, were taken into account, the market share rose to 15.4 per cent.

FCAI Chief Executive Tony Weber said sales across the sector would have been even higher if not constrained by supply issues.

A number of car companies continue to report long waits for new models, with some hybrid and electric variants among those.

Overall, sales of sports utility and light commercial vehicles continued to dominate the Australian market, accounting for 76.8 per cent of all demand with traditional passenger cars sitting at 18.5 per cent.

Toyota continued its long run as market leader last month retailing 12,029 vehicles ahead of Mazda on 6926, Kia on 6200, Hyundai on 5732 and Ford on 5047.

The Ford Ranger was the top-selling model with 3567 heading out the showrooms, followed by the Toyota Hi-Lux with 3526, the Toyota Rav4 on 2198, Tesla’s Model Y with 2095 and Hyundai’s i30 with 2029.

 

Tim Dornin
(Australian Associated Press)