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Electric vehicle sales have doubled so far this year

Official new car sales data released today shows 558 electric vehicles were reported as sold during January and February of 2021, an increase of 105.1 per cent over the same months last year.


The increase could be higher if Tesla sales were included in official data. Although Tesla has been selling cars in Australia since 2014, it does not provide monthly sales updates.

Leading the charge is the electric variant of MG's popular small SUV, the MG ZS, with 268 reported sold to the end of February. The ZS easily outsold the Porsche Taycan (shown below), the first all-electric vehicle from the German manufacturer with 64 sales to the end of February off the back of a strong month where 51 new Taycans found homes.

Porsche edged out cross-town rivals Mercedes-Benz which has sold 52 of its all-electric SUV, the EQC, over the same period.

Hyundai's electric siblings, the Ioniq sedan (35) and Kona SUV (31) accounted for 66 reported sales while Nissan’s venerable Leaf recorded 77 sales heading up a long tail that includes the Audi e-Tron (18 sales), Jaguar i-Pace (12), and BMW i3 (11).

A total of 1769 electric cars were recorded as sold in 2020. However, exclusive data obtained by Drive confirmed that Tesla alone – which does not disclose its sales numbers – added a further 3430 sales, bringing the national total to 5199, or around 0.56 per cent of the new car market.

Rob Margeit

Rob Margeit is an award-winning Australian motoring journalist and editor who has been writing about cars and motorsport for over 25 years. A former editor of Australian Auto Action, Rob’s work has also appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Wheels, Motor Magazine, Street Machine and Top Gear Australia. Rob’s current rides include a 1996 Mercedes-Benz E-Class and a 2000 Honda HR-V Sport.

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