Sales of hybrid vehicles in Australia are outpacing that of electric vehicles, a new report released Tuesday night showed.
Hybrids outsold EVs three quarters in a row, with 95,129 vehicles sold. Electric vehicle sales in Australia sold just 69,593 over that same period, the quarterly EV Index published by the Australian Automobile Association showed.
The report also showed a declining sales trend for ICE vehicles, which fell more than 8% in the fourth quarter of last year, although their overall market share is still 78.18% of total vehicle sales.
EVs accounted for 8.7% of the total market share, while hybrids account for 11.95%--that's up from 6.26% since the first quarter of last year.
"People are wanting to go into that lower cost, lower emissions motoring, but they just don't think they are ready for the full EV experience," James Voortman of the Australian Automotive Dealer Association said.
The main concerns that potential car buyers shared regarding electric vehicles include the high cost of the vehicles and a lack of charging infrastructure.
And its not just Australia where hybrids are drawing in more attention compared to electric vehicles. Earlier this month, Ford Motor Company delayed its planned rollout of some of its next-gen EVS in favor of expanding its hybrid vehicle lineup. While Ford had planned to launch an all-new three-row EV in 2025, it decided to push it back to 2027 to allow "the consumer market for three-row EVs to further develop and enable Ford to take advantage of emerging battery technology," the automaker recently said.
GM also pivoted away from its die-hard all electric vehicles, announcing in January that it had plans to reintroduce a gasoline-electric vehicle with a plug.
"We are timing the launches to help us comply with the more stringent fuel economy and tailpipe emission standards that are being proposed,"
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
Julianne Geiger is a veteran editor, writer and researcher for Oilprice.com, and a member of the Creative Professionals Networking Group. More