BMW has released its battery electric vehicle (BEV) registrations in Australia for 2024, which have seen a huge surge, increasing by over 202% to 5,562 BEV registrations so far this year.
This is three times more than the 1,869 BEVs registered in the same period in 2023, and means that the brand is sitting comfortably in 3rd position, behind Tesla and BYD, in the EV rankings. BMW’s overall new car sales are up just 3.2 per cent in the year, underlining the growing popularity of its EV offerings.
The star of the line-up is the BMW iX1, which has seen its registrations grow significantly, achieving nearly 2,000 units registered in 2024.
The 1,948 BMW iX1 registrations also helped the model outsell its ICE variants which also indicates the demand for cleaner electric offerings in that segment.
The slightly larger BMW iX3 also saw 794 registrations in 2024, which is also a good sign for the mid-sized luxury SUV market for the rest of the year and into 2025.
Other body types saw the BMW i4 sedan make up 1,592 registrations by the end of September, also highlighting an upward trend in the luxury sporty sedan segment.
That’s an increase of 842% compared to the 169 total sales it had over the same period in 2023. Part of this uptick in registrations could be thanks to the entry-level variant of the i4 that sits under the luxury car tax (LCT) threshold.
BMW currently has 16 BEV variants in the market, with six priced under the LCT, and is also eligible for fringe benefit tax (FBT) exemptions.
Other luxury brands have not performed as well, with Mercedes-Benz seeing just over 2,100 sales while low-volume luxury brands like Genesis seeing under 100 sales over the same period.
With three months of registrations still left in the year, it looks like EV sales for brands like BMW will finish on a big high. This trends is likely to continue into 2025 as more buyers consider upgrading their vehicle to cleaner, quieter options.
Find all available EV options on our EV Models page and the latest sales data here.
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.
The positive from this article is that every EV sold is a step towards changing consumer preference for which cars to buy. By the early to mid 2030’s EV’s will be the default first choice unless there are extra ordinary usage requirements of the vehicle that are not meet by EV. Though with the soon to be released BYD Shark most of these edge cases would be meet by such a vehicle.
And the good news is that Worldwide BMW ICE sales slid 13% in September. So its just as well EV sales are growing at 19% for the year to represent 1 in 4 sold worldwide.
Not looking good over at Mercedes.
The i4 sales increase is due to stock constraints. The i4 I ordered in July 2022 wasn’t delivered until May 2024, and there were many others waiting too.