Australia is miles behind the UK when it comes to interest in electric motorcycles and scooters.
A new survey shows half of UK bikers want to own an electric motorbike or have bought one, and 43.8% say sales of new petrol bikes should eventually be banned entirely.
In Australia, there are few electric models available:
- Zero Motorcycles withdrew from the market in 2017;
- Harley-Davidson’s LiveWire is prohibitively expensive;
- Most other electrics are small-sized scooters; and
- Australia’s first full-sized electric motorcycle from Savic (pictured above) is still not yet available.
LiveWire in action
Of course, the biggest obstacle in Australia is the combination of limited range of electric vehicles and the tyranny of distance in our big country, especially when compared wth the UK.
But it’s not just sales of electric motorcycles and scooters that are stagnant. Electric Vehicle Council figures show that last ear only 6,900 electric cars were sold in Australia, up just 2.7% on 2019. That’s just 0.7 per cent of total Australian car sales.
By comparison, electric vehicles in the EU increased their market share from 3.8% in 2019 to 10.2% in 2020. In California, market share went from 7.6% to 8.1%. Norway EV sales rose from 56% in 2019 to 75% in 2020.
In the the UK, it was 3.1% in 2019 against 10.7% in 2020, but that should improve markedly if the survey from motorbike insurer Bikesure is any indication.
Electric Vehicle Council chief executive Behyad Jafari blames politicians for “yanking the handbrake” on EV sales in Australia.
“We have no targets, no significant incentives, no fuel efficiency standards – and in Victoria we even have a new tax on non-emitting vehicles,” he says.
“Our governments are apparently doing everything possible to ensure Australia is stalled with its hazards on while the rest of the world zooms into the horizon,” Beyhad says.