{"id":19931,"date":"2026-04-19T22:54:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T12:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/electricvehiclecouncil.com.au\/?p=19931"},"modified":"2026-04-19T22:54:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T12:54:34","slug":"ev-sales-hit-all-time-high-drivers-hit-the-road-for-the-easter-long-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/electricvehiclecouncil.com.au\/uncategorized\/ev-sales-hit-all-time-high-drivers-hit-the-road-for-the-easter-long-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"EV sales hit all time high,\u00a0 drivers hit the road for the Easter long weekend\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">EV sales in March 2026 hit an all-time record\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">22.9% of light vehicles sold in March were EVs, beating the record set in February<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">EV drivers using charging infrastructure as part of Easter long weekend roadtrips<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Electric vehicles reached 22.9% of new car sales in March 2026 \u2014 the highest on record \u2014 as more Australians chose EVs for long weekend travel, supported by lower running costs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">EVC and publicly recorded data showed that 24,054 (15,839 BEVs and 8,215 PHEVs) sold in March, with EV sales\u00a0 growing 69.6% year to date compared to 2025.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe overall car market tightened by 3% in March but EVs bucked the trend, hitting 22.9% market share. We&#8217;ve just crossed half a million EVs on Australian roads,\u201d <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">said CEO of the Electric Vehicle Council, Julie Delvecchio.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;This growth is being driven by two things &#8211; soaring petrol prices stinging household budgets, and the Electric Car Discount \u2014 which has put EVs within reach for more than 100,000 Australians.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOne is a crisis. The other is a government policy that&#8217;s working. But a fuel crisis is not a long-term strategy. The Electric Car Discount needs to stay \u2014 so the next wave of buyers can do what over half a million Australians already have, and save $3,000 a year by switching.&#8221;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The record sales coincide with a surge in public charging demand over the Easter long weekend, as more Australians than ever hit the road in electric vehicles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThis Easter was one of the biggest tests yet for Australia\u2019s public charging network,\u201d said Ms Delvecchio.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe surge wasn\u2019t unexpected given the current fuel crisis, but it provides a clear sign of what lies ahead as more Australians make the switch to electric vehicles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cPeak holiday travel will always be the most challenging time for any transport system. While some locations experienced congestion during peak travel periods, overall charging held up for most EV drivers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The NRMA reported strong performance across its charging network during the holiday period.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe NRMA network performed strongly over the Easter weekend, even under record utilisation with total energy delivered increased by 100% year on year.\u201d said an NRMA spokesperson.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Adelaide, the RAA Charge network also reported a doubling of session times over the holiday weekend when compared to last year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe were prepared for this level of EV growth and are glad to see the network could handle the increased interest,\u201d said an RAA Spokesperson.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To meet the growing demand, the EVC is calling for a single national charging plan to guide rollout of infrastructure for both passenger vehicles and freight through to 2035 in line with Australia\u2019s net-zero targets.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe need a roadmap that supports passenger vehicles and freight, gives industry certainty, and ensures Australia is ready for the next decade of transport electrification,\u201d Delvecchio said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Media contact:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Todd Hayward: <\/span><a href=\"mailto:media@evc.org.au\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">media@evc.org.au<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">; 0412 205 151<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"clearfix\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EV sales in March 2026 hit an all-time record\u00a0 22.9% of light vehicles sold in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/electricvehiclecouncil.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/electricvehiclecouncil.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/electricvehiclecouncil.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electricvehiclecouncil.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electricvehiclecouncil.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19931"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/electricvehiclecouncil.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19932,"href":"https:\/\/electricvehiclecouncil.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19931\/revisions\/19932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/electricvehiclecouncil.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electricvehiclecouncil.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electricvehiclecouncil.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}