<
https://thedriven.io/2026/08/29/australias-biggest-car-dealer-says-ev-buyers-are-on-one-way-street-were-not-seeing-them-coming-back-to-ice/>
"The head of Australia’s largest car dealership group has dismissed fossil fuel
and social media talking points about EV satisfaction, saying that once people
shift to electric vehicles, they don’t come back to petrol or diesel cars.
The observation was made by Keith Thornton, the CEO of Eagers Automotive, which
says 25 per cent of its sales this last six months have been plug in electrics,
and half of all sales if you include hybrids.
Asked at the company’s results briefing this week if the sales momentum would
continue, Thornton said it was hard to tell.
“It’s a little bit hard to use what happened over March and April and the fuel
crisis period when the Iran conflict first occurred as any sort of extrapolated
demand, because it was so extraordinary,” Thornton said.
“We’ve never seen anything like it. The one thing we have observed, though, is
that the transition from a fully combustion engine car to a full electric
vehicle, and that transition might include a hybrid vehicle, a plug-in hybrid
vehicle, and ultimately a full battery electric vehicle, is a one-way street.
“Generally speaking, people transition to a lower emission vehicle and either
hybrid and/or plug-in, and we’re not seeing a lot of people who have gone down
that path, then selling out and coming back to combustion engine vehicles.
“Once you take a big step change, like has occurred in 2026, along that path
towards a more plugged-in or a lower emission powertrain, people have sort of
started the journey and it will only be a small fraction that will come back
the other way.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
