Almost half of all new cars sold in Australia between April and June 2026 were electric or hybrid, according to the Australian Automobile Association's EV Index. That is a big change for a country that has long relied on traditional petrol and diesel cars. When the AAA's EV Index started tracking this data in 2022, nine out of every ten new cars sold ran only on petrol or diesel (The Guardian).

Fully electric cars, which run on battery power alone and use no petrol, reached a record 21.03% of the market in the April–June quarter. Plug-in hybrids, which have both a battery and a petrol engine and can be plugged in to charge, hit a record 10.58%. Add in regular hybrids, which use a petrol engine helped by an electric motor, and electrified vehicles approached 50% of all new cars sold. Toyota led hybrid sales over the quarter, according to the AAA (AAA EV Index).

The surge in fully electric cars was striking. Sales more than doubled, from 34,435 in the first three months of 2026 to 69,414 in the next three, per the AAA. The AAA called it the largest-ever quarterly increase for electric vehicles. Even the first-quarter figure was itself a record — the first time Australian quarterly electric car sales topped 30,000. Nearly half of those, 46%, were sold in March alone. March 2026 electric car sales of 15,865 were more than double January's 7,420, and monthly market share for electric cars rose 73.6% over the same period, from 8.71% to 15.12% (AAA).

Traditional petrol and diesel cars fell from 64.23% of the market in the first quarter to 50.84% in the second. The AAA recorded both figures as records: the lowest-ever share for traditional cars and the biggest-ever quarterly drop (The Guardian).

The broader context here is one where fuel prices and world events pushed people toward different choices. Fuel prices in Australia peaked in March 2026 during a period of instability in the Middle East that affected key oil supply routes. On 30 March 2026, the federal government cut the fuel excise — a tax Australians pay on every litre of petrol — to help drivers cope with the crisis. Those tax cuts were due to end on 2 August 2026, with fuel prices on track to top $2 a litre again (The Guardian).

The timing is worth paying attention to. The biggest monthly jump in electric car sales happened in March — exactly when fuel prices were at their highest. Overall car sales in the first quarter were weak: 281,103 new vehicles were sold, the second-lowest quarterly total since the AAA EV Index began in 2023 (AAA). Yet even in that slow market, electric and hybrid vehicles were grabbing a larger share. By the second quarter, that trend had turned into real volume growth, with electric car sales more than doubling even as the wider market stayed soft.

What the data does not settle is whether this shift is permanent or driven by the fuel crisis. The fuel tax cut put a ceiling on petrol prices, but its end on 2 August brings back the same fuel-cost pressure that lined up with the original rise in electric car demand. Whether that leads to even more electric car sales or a shift back toward petrol cars will be the key question in the next AAA report.

What is clear is the direction over the four years the EV Index has been running. Traditional car share has fallen from roughly 90% to just under 51% in a single quarter. Plug-in hybrids, often seen as a stepping stone between petrol and fully electric, have set their own records alongside pure-electric growth. And regular hybrids, while still growing, have been overtaken by fully electric car sales for the first time. The Australian market, long known for heavy reliance on petrol cars and limited electric model choices, is moving toward an electrified majority faster than almost anyone expected in 2022.