The sale of electric and hybrid vehicles in Australia in 2016 have waned over the year prior.
VFACTS figures published by AutoTalk.com.au show, among others, just 65 private passenger EVs were sold in 2016 compared to the 220 sold in 2015. This 69 percent drop tops further declines in hybrids which fell four percent to 2488 sales in 2016 compared with 2697 in 2015.
Optimism: Hybrid SUVs did alright last year
Fleets did the heavy lifting in the EV segment however with a drooping sales of 145 EVs in 2015 to just 101 in 2016 (down 30 percent).
Non-private electric SUVs saw just double figures – only 42 vehicles sold last year compared with 661 in 2015 (down 93 percent).
One glimmer of positive news is that hybrid passenger fleet sales improved 9 percent to 8049 in 2016 over 2015’s robust 7375 figure.
With Mitsubishi iMiev gone from the market and Nissan LEAF on special order only (dropped entirely in New Zealand), and just the expensive BMW i3 ($70,000 price range) and the Tesla Model S at over $100,000, it’s up to the Tesla Model 3 expected end-of-year or early 2018 to improve sales at approximately $50,000.
Diesels sold 363,000 units in 2016 (up 8.6 percent) and petrol dominated with 768,000 sold.
