IN the clearest picture yet of the entire Australian car parc that will have repercussions for the future repair industry, a federal report has found the number of EVs has doubled and people are keeping their cars longer.
ON the eve of the New Vehicles Emission Scheme coming into place in 2025, the federal Department of transport has released its comprehensive analysis of all registered vehicles across Australia.
The total car parc has now grown to 21.74 million registered motorised road vehicles on 31 January 2024 – an increase of 2.7 per cent over January 2023.
There were approximately 167,850 registered battery and fuel-cell electric vehicles, about 95 per cent being passenger vehicles across Australia, an increase of 112 per cent on January 2023.
This is about one per cent of the total number of passenger vehicles across Australia and will not include 2024 figures where the sale of new EV’s has continued to grow.
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Similarly, hybrids now make up three per cent of all passenger vehicles, that will not include a 2024 sales surge
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Traditional power trains still dominate the national fleet with 67.3 percent being petrol powered and diesel making up 29 per cent but this proportion has decreased slightly.
There were approximately 481,400 registered hybrid electric vehicles on at the start of the year, an increase of 32 per cent over the end of January 2023, of which 99.6 per cent are passenger vehicles.
But potentially of concern to the government that is hoping a NVES will shift the balance toward zero emissions vehicles with new purchases, is the fact that the average age of cars has gone up.
The average age of vehicles across Australia increased from around 11.25 years in 2023 to around 11.40 years in 2024 while for passenger vehicles these ages increased from around 11.0 years in 2023 to 11.18 years in 2024.
Average ages of cars have also been rising for the past decade
The Tasmanian registered vehicle fleet is the oldest with an average age of 13.5 years.
The Australian Capital Territory registered vehicle fleet is the youngest with an average age of 10.4 years.
Toyota remained the largest passenger vehicle make for the 19th consecutive year, with approximately 3.16 million registered vehicles.
Read the full report here