EV and hybrid sales up March

Sales of electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids in Australia jumped to record levels in March, as fuel prices also surged due to the war in the Middle East.

EVs experienced the biggest growth, seeing demand soar by nearly 90 per cent year-on-year, to 15,839 units, accounting for 14.6 per cent of the total new-vehicle market.

Sales of hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), meanwhile, rose by 6.7 per cent and 18.5 per cent, to 17,953 and 8215 units respectively, further underscoring a big shift towards electrification in Australia for the month.

These are according to the combined data supplied by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) and the Electric Vehicle Council, as Tesla and Polestar refuse to supply sales figures to the FCAI due to accusations of bias against EV brands.

To put March’s EV sales performance into perspective, the EV running rate for the whole of 2025 in Australia was at 8.3 per cent, on the back of slowing demand at the time.

Only the most optimistic forecasts had EVs breaching double digits by the end of this year.

Furthermore, those hybrid sales results for March would have had a stronger showing had Australia’s favourite hybrid of the past half-decade, the Toyota RAV4 mid-sized SUV, not suffered from a global stock shortage caused by the changeover to the next-generation model. Toyota has since apologised for the massive miscalculation of supply.

In contrast, petrol sales stumbled by nearly 21 per cent, though the 10 per cent slide in diesel demand was probably tempered somewhat by the very-limited availability of electrified commercial vehicle options at this stage.

This explains why the two best-sellers in March continue to be utes in the form of the Ford Ranger (down 10 per cent) and Toyota HiLux diesels (up two per cent), with the eighth-placed Isuzu D-Max diesel (up four per cent) also making an appearance.

China’s BYD Shark 6 PHEV was also in short supply, seeing it placed way down at number 22 for the month, though the recently-released PHEV version of the GWM Cannon saw it finally gain traction in 30^th place.

But, utes aside, March was an electrification sales event, led by the third-placed Tesla Model Y SUV EV enjoying a 63 per cent surge in popularity, while the rest of the top 10 models in order of popularity (Nissan X-Trail, Mitsubishi Outlander, Hyundai Kona, Chery Tiggo 4, Hyundai Tucson and Haval Jolion) all offer affordable PHEV, range-extender EV or hybrid options.

In other words, there was no pure-petrol-powered-only model on the Australian sales podium until the 14^th-placed Mazda CX-5 mid-sized SUV, followed by the 26^th-placed Mazda CX-30 small SUV and 28^th-placed Mazda CX-3 light SUV.

With Toyota still placed firmly at number one amongst the manufacturers overall, this may explain why Mazda fell behind the highly-electrified Kia and BYD brands (placed at number two and three respectively), while a diesel-heavy Ford has slipped to number five.

A number of models from China are now achieving price parity with rival petrol-powered alternatives.

These include the BYD Atto 1 small car and Atto 2 SUV, Jaecoo J5 EV SUV, MG4 small car, Chery E5, Leapmotor B10 and Geely EX5, along with the just-announced GWM Ora 5 SUV.

Whether EVs can sustain this level of sales performance moving forward may depend on how long oil prices remain high.