Australian desire for electric & hybrid vehicles continues rise

New automotive data from Roy Morgan shows the proportion of Australians looking to buy electric or hybrid vehicles in the near future continues to grow as petrol vehicles decrease in popularity.

Among Australians who intend on purchasing a new vehicle in the next four years 59.1% say a petrol engine vehicle is the most likely type (down a significant 6.3% points on a year ago). This is followed by diesel vehicles (23.5%), hybrid vehicles (12.7%) and electric vehicles (4.2%).

Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says that environmentally friendly vehicles are growing at the expense of petrol-powered engines.

“Although electric and hybrid vehicles are still in their infancy in Australia, both engine types are becoming more and more attractive to people intending to buy a new car in the future. This comes at the expense of petrol vehicles, which continue to decrease in popularity.

“A year ago, 148,000 Australians were intending to buy a hybrid vehicle, and 50,000 were intending to buy an electric vehicle. This has grown to 188,000 and 63,000 respectively and, given the increasing focus on environment issues, we can expect those numbers to keep rising.”

These latest findings are drawn from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey, Australia’s leading market research survey, compiled by in-depth face-to-face interviews with over 50,000 Australians each year in their homes.

Of Australians who intend to buy an electric vehicle in the following four years, 37.5% would consider purchasing a Tesla, followed by Hyundai (20.4%), Toyota (19.6%), Kia (12.5%) and BMW (12.3%).

“The electric car market in Australia is still evolving, with many manufacturers yet to release a fully electric vehicle. This data is particularly encouraging for brands such as Toyota and Kia – for despite them not having yet released electric models in Australia, future car intenders are considering those brands for their next purchase. Kia may well consider bringing forward the introduction of their e-Niro and E-soul electric vehicles to the Australian market on the back of such results,” says Ms. Levine.

Most likely engine type of Australians intending to buy a new vehicle

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source Australia, January 2018 – December 2018, n = 1,332. January 2019 – December 2019, n = 1,023 Base: Australians 14+ who intend to buy a new vehicle in the next four years.

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