Electric Cars Off To A Slow Start In Australia


The idea of ditching petrol and running a car off electricity is good in theory, but high prices and a lack of options has meant take up of electric vehicles has been extremely slow. It turns out that the top-selling EV in Australia last year sold a grand total of 30 vehicles.

While there were only two real players on the market last year – the Mitsubishi i-MiEV and the Tesla Roadster – according to a story in Drive today, only 30 of the Mitsubishi cars actually ended up selling last year, with a total of 49 EVs sold all up.

This year sees the introduction of a few more models, with Holden, Nissan and Renault all launching EVs in Australia, but research from the US indicates that demand is waning given the massive increase in price for an EV over the petrol variant it’s based on. The Holden Volt, for example, will cost just under $60,000 when it launches later this year, compared to the $21,000 of the Cruze it is based on.

Other concerns are the limited range and lack of charging infrastructure around the country.

Still, despite all these concerns, I thought there would have been more than 49 electric cars sold in Australia last year. That number is kind of depressing, really.

[Drive]


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