As the end to the ACT's free rego offer approaches next month, the brakes have been firmly applied on new electric vehicle sales growth, with a modest 8.5 per cent rise in the first four months compared with the same period last year.
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This comes after a phenomenal 281.4 per cent growth seen during the same four-month period in 2023, compared with 2022.
But sales of hybrid vehicles, which are powered by both a combustion engine and a battery, are cruising ahead in the ACT this year, up by 172.6 per cent compared with the same period in 2023 when supply problems pushed waiting lists out for as long as nine months.
Those issues now behind it, the popular Toyota RAV4 Hybrid set new sales records nationally in April and became the country's top-selling vehicle, toppling the Ford Ranger 4X4. It is also leading the ACT market year to date.
Toyota sold more than 10,000 hybrid vehicles nationally in April alone. Of the 5504 RAV4s sold across Australia during April, 94 per cent were hybrids.
ACT rego discounts given to hybrid electric and plug-in electric vehicles will expire shortly.
Canberra motorists intending to switch to an EV only have until June 30 this year to take advantage of the two-year free rego offer rolled out in May 2021.
From then on, the scheme comes to an end and in its place arrives an emissions-based registration scheme which will cost most EV owners around $330 per year, plus the Motor Accident Insurance levy and other charges like the road rescue fee and road safety contribution tax.
Stamp duty exemptions still apply for hybrids, plug-in hybrids and full EVs.
Meanwhile, as the ACT winds up its EV incentives, the West Australian government is investing more heavily, committing a further $5.2 million to its direct zero emission rebates to consumers.
People who buy a zero emission light (under 4.5 tonnes) car -hydrogen fuel cell or EV - in the west qualify for a $3500 government rebate.
As of the end of April this year, 6461 cash rebates have been paid to EV owners, costing the WA government $22.6 million.
While the ACT has led the rest of the country - on a per capita basis - in EV sales, the territory's free rego scheme wasn't the sales stimulus expected.
Departmental modelling by the government had budgeted that the two-year rego waiver would cost just over $13 million in "lost" registration revenue. To date, the rego incentive scheme applied to new or used zero-emission vehicles has cost the government $7.660 million.
As at the end of April this year, there were 7816 zero emission vehicles registered in the ACT according to the territory's climate choices website.
All EVs in the territory soon will fall under an emissions-based system, rather than a weight-based system. The reason for this is that EVs are generally heavier vehicles than their combustion-powered equivalents and maintaining the old system effectively would be penalising electric vehicle drivers.
The ACT's best-selling car last year, the Tesla Model Y electric SUV, weighs just over two tonnes in its long range configuration, about 20 per cent more than a combustion vehicle of comparable size.
The ACT government maintains that under its new emissions-based registration system, 96 per cent of all private passenger vehicles will pay the same or less registration.
