Electric vehicle sales soar: Australia’s best suburbs for electric car adoption revealed with Brisbane drivers leading the way

The Aussie regions with the most drivers making the switch to electric vehicles have produced some surprising results.

A growing number of motorists are embracing zero-emission vehicles as the popularity of battery electric and hybrid vehicles increases.

South East Queensland, the ACT and parts of Sydney are at the forefront of EV ownership, new Australian Automobile Association data showed.

The top motorists’ organization revealed the top local government areas of EV use with Brisbane, a particularly large municipal area, ranking number one with more than 6,700 cars purchased in the past year.

Canberra, the country’s capital, came in second, followed by the Gold Coast, Sydney’s northern beaches and Boroondara, in Melbourne’s east, rounding out the top five.

Sydney CBD came in sixth, followed by Ku-ring-gai in Queensland’s higher north coast city Sunshine Coast and Moreton Bay with Sydney’s Hills Shire ranked tenth.

Sydney’s iNner West, Parramatta, Blacktown and Ryde made the top 20, while in the west Stirling in north Perth leads the way, ranking 16th nationally.

The number of electric cars sold in the light vehicle market doubled between January 31, 2022 and early 2023.

While internal combustion engine vehicles remain the dominant fuel type, national market share fell to 83.15 percent in the June quarter, down from 86.4 percent in the previous three months.

The ACT is home to Australia’s highest EV vehicle penetration, with one per cent of registered light vehicles being battery EVs and a further three per cent being hybrids.

By comparison, EV penetration was 0.41 percent in NSW, 0.39 percent in Victoria and 0.37 percent in Queensland as of January 31, 2023.

According to the AAA, one in five light-duty vehicles sold in the ACT in the three months to June 30 was electric.

Electric car sales grew a whopping 117 percent in Victoria in the June quarter, while NSW and Queensland posted increases of 21 percent and 23 percent respectively.

Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen welcomed the growing emergence of EVs, but said Australia still has a long way to go to meet key emissions reduction targets.

“Of course, an increase in fleet EV sales will now flow into the second-hand market in a few years’ time, which will be a big boost to the affordability of electric vehicles,” the minister told The Australian Financial Review.

The federal government also hopes that the recent elimination of the secondary withholding tax on electric vehicles will help boost the second-hand market in the coming years.

Elsewhere in the AAA EV Index, Western Australia has below average penetration rates of both BEV and hybrid fuel types.

So is Queensland statewide, despite Brisbane, Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast being at the forefront of electric vehicle adoption.

South East Queensland, the ACT and parts of Sydney lead the way in EV ownership, new data from the Australian Automobile Association shows (pictured, a map of the top 10 regions embracing EVs)

South East Queensland leads the way in EV adoption with four LGAs in the top 10. Pictured is an EV station on the Gold Coast

Battery electric and hybrid vehicles are increasing their share of the Australian new vehicle market. Pictured is a Tesla Model Y on the Gold Coast

South Australia’s hybrid penetration is equal to the national average, but EV penetration is lower.

The Northern Territory has higher hybrid registration penetration and lower EV penetration than national rates.

In Tasmania, registrations of BEVs at the end of January 2023 were 0.31 percent below the national average of 0.38 percent.

But EV sales penetration in Tasmania in June was the second highest in Australia after ACT at 9.98 per cent, well above the national average of 8.67 per cent

The vast majority of EV sales were the Tesla Models Y and 3 and the BYD Atto 32, with prices starting at $65,400 and $48,011, respectively.

It was recently revealed that Tesla drivers are much more likely to live in Australia’s wealthiest zip codes, along with a few surprises in the wealth of data.

Affluent suburbs of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane dominate the top 20 places where electric cars are registered by federal voters, with the Gold Coast intriguingly having the most per capita.

As the Tesla list expanded to include the top 30 areas, Perth and Canberra had a few entries, but Adelaide and chic beach hotspots like Byron Bay and Noosa were nowhere to be seen.

Eight Sydney LGAs, including the CBD, ranked in the top 20 for electric vehicle adoption. Pictured is a Telsa Model Y