Tesla’s expensive lesson as drivers opt for other electric models

Tesla has so far led the EV ownership race in Australia, but with delays for the Model 3 now stretching out to up to 12 months, and little to no Model S or Model X deliveries since late 2020, consumers are starting to look at other electric car brands.

Today we dive into what brands like MG, Hyundai, Nissan and Porsche have been doing when it comes to getting EVs into our driveways.

Expensive EVs like Porsche leading the way, replacing Tesla Model S demand

In 2021, Porsche Taycan was the third-best selling EV with over 510 sales in Australia. This trend now continues in the first 3 months of 2022 with over 136 new Porsche Taycan owners seeing their cars delivered in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria combined. That alone will set the Porsche Taycan above its uptake in 2021.

One of the reasons behind the success of the Porsche Taycan has been the fact that Tesla has not been able to deliver any Tesla Model S sedans for most of 2021. This is after Tesla completely removed Model S & X pricing from its Australian website.

It appears that hundreds of owners who were perhaps considering a Model S could not wait any longer and have purchased the Porsche Taycan instead.

Australia’s second-best EV: MG ZS EV uptake sees a slight jolt

Out of all the legacy auto brands, MG is the newest brand and their ZS EV has been Australia’s cheapest new EV since its launch just over a year ago in early 2021. Last year they sold over 1,300 making it Australia’s second best selling EV after Tesla Model 3.

This year so far, MG ZS EV ownership uptake has started to slow down a bit with data showing 92 new ZS EV’s ending up on the roads of the 3 big eastern seaboard states. That’s despite the availability of more subsidies/stamp duty concessions in these states compared to the same time in 2021.

The Driven understands that the main driver behind this slowdown could be the launch of the upcoming new 2022 MG ZS EV, offering better range while still staying at the affordable end of the range of EVs available to prospective Australian EV owners.

The awareness and eligibility of state and territory EV subsidies and higher fuel prices will also drive better uptake of the new MG ZS EV.

Nissan and Hyundai making their way up on the chart too

Hyundai and Nissan have made affordable EVs in recent years which have been available to Australian buyers.The Nissan Leaf was the first mainstream EV to launch in Australia but over the years fewer have ended up on our roads due to price, lack of charging infrastructure, low range making it less attractive to buyers.

This has resulted in less people taking an interest in the car. For the first three months of 2022, uptake data from carloop shows 93 new Nissan Leafs ended up on Queensland, NSW and Victorian roads. That’s 1 more than the MG ZS EV which has a new model with more range on the way to Australia in Q3 2022.

One of the main reasons that the current MG ZS EV and Nissan Leaf, which sit in the ~300km range mark – have not had the same interest as the Tesla Model 3 or even the Hyundai Kona EV has been the driving range they offer. This is shown in the number of Hyundai Kona EVs – which has 484km driving range – ending up on our roads. Across the eastern larger states, the first three months of 2022 saw over 210 new Hyundai Kona EVs delivered.

EV Uptake heading in the right direction for non-Tesla models

EV uptake in Australia is heading in the right direction. With brands like Porsche taking the charge in the high end of the market, it is also becoming increasingly clear that Australians want more affordable EVs with reasonable range as seen by the uptake of the Hyundai Kona EV so far in 2022.

With the launch of the new MG ZS EV and BYD Atto 3 offering a better range than many EVs under $50,000, subsidies in states will help get many more buyers across the line to flick the switch to EVs.