Australia sold more battery-electric vehicles in August than in any month before, and they were 24.2 per cent of September’s market

What the two releases say

For August, the FCAI reports that VFACTS recorded 100,939 sales during August, up 0.4 per cent on the same month last year, and then: Across all reporting sources, 27,089 BEVs were sold during August. That figure represented 24.9 per cent of the entire new vehicle market.

For September, released on 6 October, it reports that Australia’s new vehicle market recorded 102,924 sales in September 2026, up 0.9 per cent from the same month last year. On battery-electrics: Battery electric vehicle sales from all sources accounted for 24.2 per cent of the market in September. In September 2025, the share was 11.3 per cent. And for the year: During 2026 so far, BEVs represent 18.9 per cent of the entire market, compared with 8.1 per cent at the same time in 2025.

Four months on one definition

The FCAI has now published a battery-electric share on the same all-sources basis for four months in a row: 23.3 per cent in June, 21.7 per cent in July, 24.9 per cent in August and 24.2 per cent in September. On those figures September was 0.7 points below August and 2.5 points above July (our arithmetic). The September share is a little over twice the September 2025 share of 11.3 per cent (24.2 divided by 11.3 is 2.14, ours).

The September release does not give a battery-electric count, only the share, so we cannot say whether more or fewer BEVs were sold in September than in August. Multiplying 24.2 per cent by the 102,924 sales figure would not answer it either, for the reason below.

The share and the sales total use different counts

This is the point we made about July, and August makes it again. Divide 27,089 by 100,939 and you get 26.8 per cent, not 24.9. The 100,939 is the VFACTS count; the 24.9 per cent is a share of the entire new vehicle market across all reporting sources, which is larger. Working backwards, 27,089 divided by 24.9 per cent implies an all-sources market of about 108,800 in August, roughly 7,850 vehicles or 7.8 per cent more than the VFACTS count. That is our arithmetic, and because 24.9 is rounded the implied total sits between about 108,600 and 109,000.

In July we asked whether that gap between the two counts was growing. It was 8,924 vehicles, or 6.8 per cent of VFACTS, in June, when the FCAI stated both totals. On our arithmetic it was about 4.5 per cent in July and about 7.8 per cent in August. So it narrowed and then widened again. It moves enough from month to month that a share worked out on the VFACTS total alone can be nearly two points out, as August shows.

The tables published with both releases also settle a question we left open in July. The FCAI’s VFACTS summary table lists July 2026 at 103,656, the figure the July release gave as vehicles delivered, so that was the VFACTS count, as we had inferred but not confirmed.

The other powertrains, and why we do not add them up

In August the FCAI says Within VFACTS, plug-in hybrid vehicles represented 10.5 per cent of August sales, while conventional hybrids accounted for 18.5 per cent. Those two shares are of the VFACTS count, while the 24.9 per cent battery-electric share is of the bigger all-sources market, so adding the three would mix two denominators. We have not done it.

For September the release gives changes rather than shares: Plug-in hybrid sales rose 122.7 per cent compared to September 2025 and hybrid sales grew 20.7 per cent. Petrol sales fell by 36.2 per cent and diesel declined by 18.4 per cent. It does not say which count those changes are measured on.

The Electric Vehicle Council, which counts battery-electric and plug-in hybrid cars together as “EVs”, uses the same 24.9 per cent battery-electric figure for August and says Combined BEV and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) sales held a 36% share of the new car market. Its release does not set out the denominator for that 36 per cent, so it should not be read against the FCAI’s shares. As at 7 October its media releases page listed no September sales release.

What the industry says

In August the FCAI’s chief executive, Tony Weber, repeated the charging point he made in July: Accessible and dependable charging will remain critical to consumer confidence, particularly on highways, in rural and regional areas and for motorists without access to charging at home. In September, acting chief executive Dianne O’Hara said the result showed that the shift towards electrified vehicles was being sustained.

Our reading

Offered as opinion on the figures above. Two months near a quarter of the market, after a dip in July, is the clearest sign yet this year that the June figure was not a one-off. The steadier number is the year to date, which has risen from 17.3 to 18.9 per cent in two months and is more than double the 8.1 per cent of a year ago.

For a household weighing an electric car, the practical lesson is the same as in every one of these stories: when you see a share, ask which vehicles were counted and what they were counted against. In these two releases the answers differ from one sentence to the next.