Australia's battery-electric sales hit a record 24.9% share in August

Battery-electric vehicles took 24.9% of Australia's new vehicle market in August 2026, according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, whose September 3 release counts 27,089 BEVs sold "across all reporting sources," the highest number sold in one month in Australia and a figure FCAI puts 171% above August 2025. The VFACTS series FCAI runs recorded 100,939 sales for the month, up 0.4% on August 2025, with plug-in hybrids at 10.5% of VFACTS sales and conventional hybrids at 18.5%. The BEV share is measured across all reporting sources, FCAI's phrase, which yields a market of roughly 108,800 vehicles against the 100,939 that VFACTS itself recorded.

The Electric Vehicle Council, reporting the same day, puts BEVs and plug-in hybrids together at 36% of the market and the Tesla Model Y at the top of the sales chart with 6,414 sales, "around 17 per cent higher than its nearest competitor"; BYD and Tesla ranked second and third among manufacturers behind Toyota, the council says. FCAI's own top ten holds five Chinese brands, BYD, GWM, MG, Geely and Chery, with a combined 26,610 sales, or 26.4% of the VFACTS market, and five of the ten best-selling models came from manufacturers based in China. The Driven, working from the FCAI data, tallies petrol cars at 25,824 and diesels at 23,608 for the month, both below the BEV count, and calls the 24.9% share the best on record, above the 23.5% it says was set in June 2026.

The month lands under the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard, which came into effect on January 1, 2025 and has applied CO2 emissions targets to new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles up to 4.5 tonnes entering the market from July 1, 2025, per the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts. FCAI chief executive Tony Weber said the results showed a structural shift in the market and pointed to charging: "Accessible and dependable charging will remain critical to consumer confidence," he said, naming highways, rural and regional areas, and motorists without charging at home.