{"id":839285,"date":"2026-08-02T06:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T06:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/839285\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T06:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T06:32:12","slug":"evs-and-hybrids-approach-half-of-australian-new-car-sales-amid-ongoing-fuel-crisis-transport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/839285\/","title":{"rendered":"EVs and hybrids approach half of Australian new car sales amid ongoing fuel crisis | Transport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Australians are now buying electric and hybrid vehicles at the same rate as traditional petrol-powered cars, according to new data that shows EV sales doubled in the months after the peak of the fuel price spike.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Fuel prices are again <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2026\/aug\/01\/petrol-prices-on-track-to-top-2-a-litre-as-bowen-sounds-death-knell-for-fuel-excise-relief\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">on track to top $2 a litre<\/a>, after the federal government\u2019s fuel excise reductions \u2013 introduced to offset the impact of the ongoing crisis in the Middle East \u2013 come to an end on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The Australian Automobile Association (AAA) has released its latest EV Index, showing motorists pivoting to electric and hybrid options in the three months from April to June, coinciding with the period of instability in fuel prices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Almost half of sales of new cars from that period were electric, plug-in hybrid or hybrid vehicles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The market share of EVs (21.03%) and plug-in hybrids (10.58%) were both records.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Fuel prices peaked in March, amid <a href=\"https:\/\/theguardian.com\/world\/us-israel-war-on-iran\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">instability in the Middle East<\/a> that affected key supply routes.<\/p>\n<p><a data-link-name=\"standard link button Primary\" data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/email-newsletters?CMP=copyembed&amp;CMP=emailbutton\" class=\"dcr-rh233e\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The federal government intervened on 30 March, announcing a fuel excise reduction that has provided some relief at the bowser.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The AAA\u2019s figures show that sales of battery electric vehicles more than doubled in the second quarter of 2026 \u2013 up from from 34,435 in the first three months, to 69,414 between April and June.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The AAA says the increase is the largest-ever quarterly rise for electric vehicles.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"#EmailSignup-skip-link-11\" class=\"dcr-76akua\">skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | When needed<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-vf9hps\">Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1r7my33\">Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2998.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"dcr-xiq31o\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"EmailSignup-skip-link-11\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"after newsletter promotion\" role=\"note\" class=\"dcr-76akua\">after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Hybrid sales were also at an all-time high, but were overtaken by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2026\/jul\/27\/australia-ev-car-sales-electric-vehicles-fuel-crisis-plug-in-hybrids\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">surge in motorists purchasing EVs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Sales of traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles fell from 64.23% in the first quarter to 2026 to 50.84% in the most-recent data. It is the lowest-ever market share for petrol-powered vehicles and their biggest-ever quarterly drop, the AAA says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">When the AAA\u2019s EV index began recording data in 2022, ICE cars accounted for nine out of ever 10 sold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australians are now buying electric and hybrid vehicles at the same rate as traditional petrol-powered cars, according to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-839285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}