Market Insight: Electric cars gain ground

AUSTRALIANS now have a choice of 19 battery electric vehicles, sufficient for many buyers aiming to exit the fossil fuel contribution club to select one that suits their needs – provided they can cop the long wait times attached to some models.

With the exception of Tesla, uptake has so far been incremental rather than incredible. But things are starting to change.

Some of the newer arrivals have done better, mainly based on availability, exclusivity or both.

Popularity of the Porsche Taycan, for example, means Zuffenhausen’s newest model is already closing in on the sales numbers achieved by the company’s enduring 911 sportscar.

The Polestar 2, a product of the Geely group that also includes Volvo and Lotus, has recorded an impressive 1025 sales this year to date, in what will be Polestar’s first full year on the Australian market as a standalone brand.

Volvo, which will transition to an all-electric product supplier in Australia by 2026, sold 495 XC40 Recharge models last year and has delivered a similar number this year, although supply constraints are currently holding back some deliveries.

Nissan’s perennial Leaf has sold 311 units to the end of October, in line with previous years, while the MG ZS EV is back in the market after a break as the brand introduced a heavily updated version in September. It sold 1317 units in 2021.

Tesla has sold 8680 examples of its Model 3 in the first 10 months of 2022, well up on its sales of 2021. Together with the more recently launched Model Y, the EV specialist has already sold more than 15,000 cars in Australia this year, exceeding its total of 12,058 deliveries 2021 and 3430 unit sales in 2020 to secure a dominant slice of the nations electric car market and outselling some major players in the process.

Upmarket brands with pure EVs include Audi with its e-Tron SUV that first appeared in 2020 and found 64 buyers, although most of the early cars were corporate and of those, a large number were allocated to dealerships and the distributor.

This year, 113 Audi e-Trons have been sold and the range now includes coupe-styled Sportback as well as performance-oriented S variants of both body styles.

Having been an early pioneer of electrification with its bold i3 and i8 models, BMW now has more conventional i4 and iX models fresh to the Australian market, selling 203 and 380 respectively in the period to the end of October.

In addition, 509 of the 4110 BMW X3 sold year-to-date are the all-electric iX3 model, of which 76 were delivered in October.

Jaguar continues to sell its I-Pace electric SUV, which has been on the Australian market since 2018. It has sold 22 units this year, half that of 2021’s total, curtailed by component supply issues.

Seemingly insulated from supply problems, Mercedes-Benz has made strong sales of its range of full EVs, with the EQC already passing 300 units this year while the smaller EQA has found 582 buyers this year to the end of October.

Mercedes this year has also introduced the EQB (130 sales to date) and flagship EQS (65 sales). The EQS is the brand’s only passenger-car EV to date, the rest being SUVs.

Porsche has sold 412 Taycans to date, closing in on the 513 sold in the full 2021 year. In the same period, it sold 492 of its conventionally-fuelled 911 variants.

It markets eight versions of the Taycan in Australia and also offers electrified models of the Panamera and Cayenne under the E-Hybrid name. An electric version of its popular Macan SUV will soon be unveiled as well.

Kia’s EV6 moved up to a higher plate this month after winning the Carsales Car of the Year award. Earlier in the year it won the same accolade from Wheels magazine.

EV6 sales are now 514 units (to the end of October) while its sibling, the Hyundai Ioniq 5, has sold 594 examples. It is the first year for Kia’s EV but Hyundai introduced the Ioniq 5 last year, selling 407 cars.

Note: BYD sales were not available at time of publication.