Tesla Model Y Is Best Selling SUV In Australia!

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“[T]here is a clear market trend towards zero emission technology,” Tony Weber, chief executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, says. This is a significant admission from the FCAI, which has long downplayed electric vehicles due to the dominance of Toyota in the group. Top models from Ford and Toyota beat Tesla for now, but the writing is on the wall.

Year to date, electric vehicles (EVs) have a low market share of Australia’s overall auto market — 2.7%. However, September figures send a clear message. Electric vehicles accounted for 7.7% of the almost 1 million new vehicles. Mild hybrid sales were reported as 4,616, down 33.7% compared to September 2021, and plug-in hybrid sales are listed as 525, up 74.4%.

Tesla recorded 5,969 deliveries in September and nearly doubled its previous best result. Tesla made the top ten brands list, at number 7. The Model Y SUV was the best-selling SUV in Australia with 4,359 deliveries and the third best-selling new vehicle overall last month. The Model Y was beaten only by the Toyota Hilux (5,170) and the Ford Ranger (4,890). No much between them, is there?

Teslas has delivered over 14,000 so far in 2022 and there is still 3 months to go. We may well see the fulfillment of Robyn Denholm’s prophecy about doubling the number of Teslas on the roads of Australia — 12,000 vehicles to go! Over 60% of all EVs sold in Australia are Teslas, somewhat mirroring the US EV market. There are already over 50,000 EVs on the road. Will Australia make it to 100,000 by the end of the year? Will we have a penetration rate of 10% in December 2022?

It is expected that the BYD Atto 3 (perhaps 300–600) and the MG ZS EV will take the distant second and third places in the EV race. MG deliveries didn’t start until mid- to late September, so its numbers will be very low for Q3. Other brands contributed very small numbers as well:

• Polestar 2 — 85
• Mercedes-Benz EQB — 82
• BMW iX — 70
• Kia EV6 — 60
• Volvo XC40 Recharge — 49
• Genesis GV60 — 46
• Porsche Taycan — 27
• BMW i4 —21
• Nissan LEAF — 16
• Audi e-tron — 13
• Mercedes-Benz EQS — 11

This surge is apparently being accomplished without fleet purchases. One industry insider shared this with me “I regularly see fleets wanting to transition to EVs but refusing to purchase from new or non-traditional brands. When you take out Tesla, Polestar, Volvo (too posh), MG, and BYD (too Chinese/new), what EV volume are you left with? Kia and Hyundai really (as Nissan have stopped bothering) and they have delivered about 1000 cars this year between them.”

Perhaps they will be enticed by the lowering of the Fringe Benefits Tax?

When fleet managers finally get behind the EV surge (as they have in the UK, spurred by the lowering of the BiK tax, and Europe), we will see an even faster adoption of electric cars.