Only one in 100 second-hand vehicles for sale is electric, according to experts who warn that it could take up to three years for the situation to significantly improve. They suggest that greater government subsidies targeting fleets and second-hand vehicles may boost the supply of electric vehicles and prevent a slowdown in the wider uptake of zero-emission vehicles and reductions in transport pollution.
Despite the soaring new car sales in Australia, the number of second-hand electric vehicles remains modest. In June, new car sales for electric vehicles broke records and almost doubled compared to the previous year. However, CARS24 CEO Olya Rudenko stated that finding used electric vehicles to buy in Australia is frustratingly rare, with less than one percent of used cars being electric out of 190,000 listings.
Rudenko explained that the scarcity of used electric cars is due to motorists holding on to new vehicle purchases for up to seven years. She believes that the key to expanding the market lies in government and business fleet sales, which are unlikely to significantly impact the second-hand market for another three to five years. Offering more subsidies for businesses to purchase electric vehicles could accelerate market growth, along with extending government rebates for second-hand cars to encourage faster sales and increase listings.
Currently, CARS24 does not offer electric vehicles due to a shortage of stock. The company focuses on selling hybrid, petrol, diesel, and LPG models. Chris Jones, the national president of the Australian Electric Vehicle Association, highlighted that the prices of second-hand electric vehicles remain stubbornly high due to limited supply. However, certain electric car models, such as early Nissan Leaf cars with shorter driving ranges and discontinued or traded-in Tesla vehicles, could be more readily available and cheaper.
Despite the low availability of second-hand electric vehicles, new car sales of electric vehicles in Australia have been growing significantly. In June, electric vehicles accounted for 8.8 percent of new car sales, and they represented 7.4 percent of total car sales in the first six months of the year, compared to 3.8 percent in 2022.