Electric Vehicles are continuing on an upward trend as an industry, with many countries reporting higher sales or projecting increased adoption for 2023.

Australia is one of them, with all EV sales already higher in the first half of 2023 than all of 2022. 

8.4% of new car sales in Australia were electric between January and June this year, compared to 3.8% for the entirety of 2022.

According to the Electric Vehicle Council, this now puts the total at roughly 130,000 EVs in Australia, which are comprised of battery-powered cars and hybrids. 

Around the world, EVs are having a similar surge in popularity, particularly in Asia.

In Vietnam, EV adoption is expected to have an increase to 13.6% in 2023, from 2.9% a year ago, a BMI Research report has found.

This is set to accelerate when projecting further into the future, with the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association predicting EV ownership in Vietnam to reach 1 million by 2028, and 3.5 million units by 2040.

Meanwhile, in China, sales of EVs are rapidly increasing, with Stuttgart-based research institute ZSW finding that 53% of EVs worldwide are on Chinese roads.

That is 53% of the 27.7 million EVs worldwide, with the U.S.A and Germany having the 2nd and 3rd most EVs, respectively.

However, there are still a few factors which act as a roadblock to the EV industry, particularly in Australia.

Factors such as a lack of supply of cheaper EVs, limited charging stations and, perhaps most evidently, the Victorian Government are preventing the industry from growing at a faster rate. 

The Electric Vehicle Council singled out the Victorian government as having “the world’s worst” approach to taxing EV ownership in its report, released in July. 

While governments around the world are incentivising drivers to limit their emissions with fuel-efficiency standards, the Albanese government has yet to introduce such fuel-efficiency standards. This means carmakers are likely to favour markets other than Australia to send their EVs to. 

As such, although electric vehicles are becoming increasingly popular among Australians, both governmental factors and a lack of supply are holding the industry back from progressing more rapidly.

If China and Vietnam are anything to go by, however, the EV industry as a whole looks set to continue its upward trajectory, globally.