Australian EV demand soared in February 2023 as fully battery electric vehicles made up 6.8% of the overall new car market. The data released on Friday from FCAI uncovers a few interesting trends as the total number of EVs on Australian roads approaches 80,000.
Today, I explore this data further and review some of these EV trends that made up the winners and losers during the month.
EV uptake overtakes 78,000 vehicles in Australia
January kickstarted the year with EV uptake making up 5.7% of all vehicles sold during the month. February took it further with EVs making up 6.8% of all sales with 5,932 EVs selling during the month. That’s out of a total of 88,878 vehicles.
The heightened demand for EVs has meant that the total EV fleet from the data compiled by The Driven now sits at 78,479 battery electric vehicles, including 10,784 EVs sold in 2023 so far.
Taking a deeper look into the numbers, it’s not hard to see the brand leading the pack. That’s Tesla of course.
No sign of Tesla demand slowing down
Once again, Tesla dominated the sale with 3,516 of its EVs selling during the month of February, which made up 60% of the total battery electric vehicles sold in February.
For some context, Tesla has made up 63% of all EVs sold during the year so far. 6,829 EVs out of the 10,784 sold in 2023 have been from Tesla.
Breaking Tesla’s own models down further, 82% of the sales so far this year have been Australia’s best-selling EV model, the Tesla Model 3.
According to delivery trends data analysed by carloop, some of these vehicles that were delivered in 2023 so far were customer orders from as far back as March 2022. This is starting to change now as Tesla catches up to the massive backlog of customer orders.
Tesla Model 3 dominated last year as it overtook the Toyota Camry. This year so far, it’s been the third-best-selling vehicle in the country for both months so far.
For those looking at getting behind the wheel of a Tesla Model 3, there are many examples of new Tesla EVs available for immediate delivery in most states and territories.
The Tesla Model Y made up 845 sales during the month which is up by 119% month-over-month. We also expect to see this shift as more Tesla Model Ys enter the market in the coming months.
BYD Sales ramp up with 177% Growth
BYD had strong sales in February with a 177% month-over-month growth after 770 Atto 3 electric SUVs were sold. This made up a 13% share of the total battery electric vehicle sales during the month.
That’s up from 267 sales in January. This brings the total to 1,037 sales for the year. These sales are expected to ramp up as BYD continues to export larger numbers of pure EVs to international markets like Australia.
In February, another test vehicle of the all-electric hatchback, the BYD Dolphin, was spotted once again. This time around, it’s a different vehicle than that spotted late last year in Sydney.
This is a good sign for the brand’s sales moving forward once this EV finally lands in Australia later this year.
It’s expected to be more affordable than the Atto 3 currently on sale around Australia which means many more Australians can make the switch to an EV in 2023.
Hyundai Ioniq 5 approaches four-fold Sales Increase
After an interesting month for the Hyundai brand, as it launched the sales of the Ioniq 6 “streamliner” sedan in Australia, the Ioniq 5 saw a sharp rise in sales.
A total of 146 Ioniq 5 electric SUVs were sold during the month which was a rise of 387% over January sales.
This also gave the Ioniq 5 a market share of 2.5% which was above over three times the market share Kia EV6 had. Both of these vehicles share the same Hyundai-Kia e-GMP platform.
In February, Hyundai saw technical issues get in the way of a successful drop of Ioniq 5 vehicles when 170 were made available in the third week of the month.
Regardless, the popularity of the all-electric Ioniq sub-brand in Australia means that Hyundai will have no trouble selling as many as they can get to the country.
With Tesla lowering prices significantly across its range in January, the impact of these lowered prices may be felt across EVs like the Ioniq 5 that compete with the very popular Model Y.
If the supply of the Ioniq 5 is increased, the prices would need to come down in order for Ioniq 5 to compete with Tesla’s aggressive drive for growth in Australia. We will be monitoring this closely and look forward to seeing how this unfolds.
Porsche Taycan sees a resurgence after a slow start
Porsche saw a massive spike in Taycan sales in February with 48 sold during the month. That’s a 500% increase over the previous month when only 8 Taycans were sold.
This is still a positive sign for the brand in Australia as the Taycan was also its most popular four-door sedan, outdoing the Panamera.
Late in January, a tri-motor version of the upcoming 2024 Porsche Taycan was spotted during winter testing in Europe.
This means that Porsche is continuing to develop the all-electric Taycan platform as it attempts to nudge the refreshed Tesla Model S which was launched in the US in 2021.
Moving forward, it’d be interesting to see the sales trends for the Taycan for the rest of 2023 as the economic uncertainty increases and luxury sports car demand stagnates.
There is also a chance that Tesla may deliver the refreshed Tesla Model S by the end of the year which could take sales away from the Taycan.
Affordable EVs are here with MG 4 launch only days away
EV uptake will be driven by the models that are available and affordable. The February uptake is a reminder that the demand for EVs is only increasing.
There are affordable models on the way which would open a larger pool of potential Australian customers who are ready to make the switch to an EV.
That’s about to change with the launch of the upcoming MG 4 which will be unveiled at Fully Charged Live in Sydney this weekend. The electric hatchback will be a ground-up EV from MG and is expected to have a price of around $40,000.
Given its success in markets like the UK, it already got a very high level of interest from Australian drivers that will further drive the EV uptake forward.
With EV uptake sitting at 6.2% so far for the year, it’s already double the 3.1% seen in 2022. As more affordable options like the MG 4 and BYD Dolphin come to our market, the sharp rate of growth will make many forget the slow uptake we have had in the last few years.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.