EV buyers stormed the gates of dealers (or, mostly, Tesla's website) to buy before the most generous period of the discount expired, while "ice" (internal combustion engine) petrol and diesel buyers hurried to get in before the penalties.
The result was a record year for both segments.
The value of pure electric vehicle imports spiked 309 per cent to $543m.
Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) increased 63 per cent to $242m and 141 per cent $46m, respectively, while internal combustion vehicles increased 42 per cent, to $5.5 billion (the traditional ice market's growth also reflected a rebound from the Covid-hit prior year).
Tesla's Model 3 was the runaway winner in the pure electric market, according to Motor Industry Association figures. The Model 3 accounted for 3283 or just under half of all pure EV sales for 2021. It was streets ahead of the second-placed pure EV (the MG ZS EV with 874 sales) and the third-placed Hyundai Kona (826).
It might be the end of the golden weather, however.
April had sales of 572 pure electric vehicles, 1113 PHEV's and 2145 hybrid vehicles, according to MIA figures. That means pure EVs have slumped by a third of the level they hit during the best month during the height of the rebate feeding frenzy (September, with 1512 sales).
PHEVs and hybrids actually perked up a bit as the Clean Car Discount scheme was reshaped from April 1 to a graded scale based on individual models' total emissions. The new setup means you can now get a subsidy on a hybrid SUV for the first time - but it also caps the maximum rebate between a band of $2000 and $7500 (from the original scheme's $2300 to $8625. Note that although the original scheme has now timed-out, there are still people who had applications in train to claim a discount until May 31).
Price hikes didn't help either. In March, Tesla raised the price of a basic spec Model 3 to $72,400 or $74,443 after on-roads.
At the start of the Clean Car Discount era, a Model 3 cost $68,732.
Like all EV makers, Tesla is grappling with global inflation, Covid supply chain issues, and worries about key components like lithium and nickel as EV demand soars. (At the APEC CEO summit, Tesla chair Robyn Denholm called on Governments to coinvest in new mines).
At the other end of the market, ute sales slumped to their lowest level since 2015 as the ute tax kicked in. No ute made the top 10 for the first time in a decade.
EVs' road-user charge exception due to expire
The soaring price of petrol is of course a strong counter-balancing effect.
But EV buyers who brag it costs the equivalent of 40 cents per litre to charge their vehicle are leaving out the elephant in the room: road user charges.
Then Transport Minister Simon Bridges suspended road use charges for electric vehicles in 2016, as part of a range of measures to encourage EV uptake (another was allowing EV owners to drive in bus lanes, which withered after road and transport agency resistance).
The Bridges perk has now been with us so long that it's become part of the scenery, and maybe even forgotten. But it was always pitched as temporary.
And as things stand, EV's RUC exemption is due to expire in March 2024.
From that point, electric car owners could be required to pay $750 per $10,000 travelled (to go by the road user charges currently levied on light diesel vehicles).
While the government of the day might be tempted to extend the RUC exemption beyond March 2024, it will also have an eye on Transpower's report on the cost of EVs going mainstream (which is inevitable, given all major automakers say they will only make pure EV and hybrid vehicles from 2030 or earlier).
Transpower says around 40 new, grid-scale, generation and batteries projects will be required, budgeted at $50m per year from 2030 and rising to $300m per year by 2050, to accommodate EVs.
One way or another, that bill will have to be paid.
