87% of New Cars Sold in Sri Lanka Are Now EVs — Real Demand or Just Tax Math?

In August 2026, 87% of all brand-new cars registered in Sri Lanka were electric, only slightly down from 92% in July. New petrol and diesel cars have become a tiny slice of the showroom market, while the EV share keeps climbing even as total registrations shrink under tighter loan-to-value limits and the ongoing import surcharge. One side says this is the tax code doing exactly what it was built to do — EVs sit near the bottom of the duty structure while petrol cars get hit hardest, so the few buyers who can still afford a new car at all are just following the cheaper path, not necessarily choosing an EV on its own merits. The other side says it doesn't matter why people switch — charging access, battery costs and resale value are all improving fast enough that EVs would keep winning this fight even without the tax gap, and a few more years of this and nobody will be cross-shopping petrol anyway. If duties were ever flattened across fuel types tomorrow, would new EVs still outsell petrol here, or is this whole shift one gazette notification away from reversing? බද්ද නිසාද, එහෙම නැත්නම් කාරණාව තේරුම් ගත්ත නිසාද අපි EV ගන්නේ?