Image: Riz Akhtar
EV sales in Australia have gotten off to a shaky start in 2025, with January witnessing a sharp drop in new car sales, partially due to a significant fall in EV leader Tesla’s sales, but also to a broader drop in vehicle appetite – despite recent price cuts.
The latest data from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) and Electric Vehicle Council (EVC) shows that just 3,832 battery electric vehicles were sold in Australia in January – a share of only 4.4 per cent. The overall market also saw a decline, with total vehicle sales landing at 87,625 compared to 99,666 in the month prior.
In January 2024, EVs made up 5.5% of the market, highlighting the scale of the decline in 2025. As per previous months, the data was separated with two suppliers, the FCAI shared 3,011 EVs – and those supplied by the Electric Vehicle Council – 821 – from Tesla and Polestar.
EV Sales Breakdown – January 2025
| FCAI vFacts | 3,011 |
| EVC (Polestar + Tesla) | 821 |
| EV Sales Total (FCAI + EVC) | 3,832 |
| Total Vehicle Sales (FCAI + EVC) | 87,625 |
Despite the big 33 per cent drop in overall Tesla sales, which are now one quarter of its levels from January, 2023, the Model Y retained its crown as the best-selling EV in the country, even though much of the hype in January was around the refreshed Model Y, which Tesla finally unveiled.
With price cuts on the current Model Y, it accounted for 465 sales in January – pipping the more affordable MG4, which took the second spot with 440 sales in a month where prices of the hatchback rose from lows in late 2024.
Kia scored the third spot on the podium – for the first time – with the EV5 registering 289 sales, edging out the Tesla Model 3 which had 274 sales.
To round out the top 5, Audi Q4 e-tron, a new entrant on the charts, took this spot with 121 sales, although exact sales data for some models are yet to come through.
It is interesting to note that sales of BYD – the Chinese car giant challenging Tesla as the biggest EV seller in the world – continued to slide, with the Atto 3 seeing just 105 sales, Dolphin reaching only 82 and the Seal scoring just 52 sales.
BYD’s best-seller for the month was the Sealion 6 with 433 sales, even that was down compared to monthly averages of around 1,000, seen in 2024.
Other notable EVs in January were a couple of new entrants including the ID.4 and ID.5 SUVs from Volkswagen which had been promised for years but never arrived until January 2025. Both accounted for 16 sales. The ID.Buzz registered 21.
The Toyota bZ4X, which has displaced the Model Y as the best selling EV in Norway, the world’s most electric market – sold just 80 units in Australia in January and does not make the top 10.
The best-selling EVs in January 2025 were:
The Driven is waiting to hear back from various manufacturers regarding sales of some EV models, and this list will be updated once they’re received.
You can also check out further details in our month by sales data record here.
While sales of full battery electric cars fell, sales of hybrids and plug-in hybrid vehicles continued to grow and now make up nearly one in five of new sales representing 17.1 per cent and 2.2 per cent of sales respectively.
FCAI CEO Tony Weber said the fall in EV sales is a major concern because consumers are turning away from EVs at the time the Commonwealth Government has introduced the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES).
“The industry continues to increase the range of zero and low-emission vehicles providing consumers with an increased choice of models and varying price points.,” he said in a statement.
“However, the Government needs to reconsider the steps it can take to build consumer confidence in EVs, otherwise their ambitious NVES targets will not be met.
Sales are expected to rebound with many new EV models entering in the coming months, and more price cuts including the $29,990 offer with BYD’s Essentials range.
See full details of EV sales for each month of the year in our database here.
See also: Tesla sales crash in Australia as Musk impact has consumers looking for another brand
And: Tesla sales are plunging around the world: Is this just a Musk problem?
And: Norway EV share hits 96 pct in January, as Toyota tops list and Tesla slumps
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.
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MG4 can't put a foot wrong. Despite a downturn across all EV sales and MG4 pricing returning to normal they keep chugging out circa 500 a month.
I think people are happy to spend the extra 2-3k over the BYD Dolphin for much better performance and charging speeds.
This is all we're asking for. A cheap, sporty EV runabout, that price matches or beats a Toyota hybrid of similar spec, great warranty , and also charges fast enough to take on the highway. No brainer.
Many students of pre-WW2 history often wondered how the German people could be so gullible. We're enjoying a lesson in real-time.
Yup..........
Adolf Hitler was, and remains, the most popular elected leader in German History.
Go figure.............
For the record the Nazi party got 33% of the vote in 1932 and the Nazi's moved quickly to annul all meaningful elections before the end of 1933, so Hitler was never liked by a majority of Germans but he was popular with a sizeable minority. He absolutely wasn't "the most popular elected leader in German history", not even close.
Also, perhaps you don't understand how a German politician could become Chancellor during the Weimar Republic. Hitler was appointed Chancellor by the then German President. One guy who did get elected to the office of President who in that role gains the power to appoint a Chancellor (the highest political office in Germany) decided to appoint Hitler - the guy leading the party that received 33% of the vote. One guy appoints another guy as Chancellor who commands a minority of votes in the German parliament but with great hopes of attracting the support he needs to effectively govern.
In November 1933 Hitler does acquire all he needs for the Nazi party to rule in its own right. He ends the Weimar Republic! Under pain of great suffering and violent death if needs be, few people oppose him on that. I have oversimplified but Hitler's ascension to great power was never a matter of broad popularity. He just gamed the system (or rather others gamed the system to make way for him) at a time that it was very brittle and prone to collapse amidst great social upheavals.
Trump is doing rather better than Hitler on the popularity front but like that odious figure he does seem to harbour powerful impulses to effect major changes to the US political system. If bodies begin to pile up then we will know that Trump is sticking to the tried and true Nazi recipe.
You should work on your history a bit more.
The Long Knives maintained the beliefs.
Not just the germans - hitler TIME magazine MAN of the YEAR 1938
You go to school to learn and the internet Xcrement wipes it.
perhaps, we will just to wait and see for it to removed their mouth first.
Was thinking exactly the same thing. The MG4 is a cracker!
Build quality 👍
Paint quality 👍
Door thunk quality 👍
Ride/handling quality 👍
The interior is a bit austere (a bit like a 90's Merc 180C).
Would be nice if it had a few more interior lights and a few more button under the infotainment.
Oh! And auto wipers!!! It has auto high beams but not auto wipers 😳
Irrelevance alone should get this comment deleted.
Another off topic irrelevance by someone with an emoji fetish. The longer the emoji string the shorter that other thing.
I can only agree with your sentiment regarding the MG4.
However if they got rid of that ugly rear end and cleaned up their styling, they would be unbeatable!
MAGA can’t get its foot out of its mouth
They need to put more effort into the interior. The cheapness put me off.
May the price war continue, so EVs become the cheapest option (which they should be, given their simplicity and the price of lithium).
And may the charging network rollout accelerate, to remedy the dire situation of the charging network pointed out most recently by Tesla Tom.
Hopefully private businesses or anyone with a car park can get medium speed chargers installed (25-50kW) without the need for more than a single page of paperwork, and faster chargers (125kW and above) with multiple bays at every petrol station on major highways , and lastly the final piece in the puzzle, outback chargers that are off grid fed by solar arrays and stationary storage, so BEVs become not just the preferred option but the expected one.
>https://thedriven.io/2024/06/11/australian-electric-vehicle-sales-by-month-and-by-model-in-2024/
So last year, and still rather incomplete.
What about this year? Not sure if this is it:
>You can also check out further details in our month by sales data record here.
Where? ... there is no link
Links fixed to point to 2025 data now, thanks Gordon.
Thanks to all the idiots still buying ICEV that they never drive more than 50km a day in 👏
I think part of this slump is due to the huge number of new EVs and manufacturers due to enter the Aus market from next month onwards, causing buyers to delay purchase until they can compare prices and specs. I think we'll see a lot of interest in BYD's Sea Lion 7 (due 14 Feb) for example. I'm not as confident re Tesla's Model Y Juniper update release, bearing in mind the current anti-Musk sentiment. Lots of other goodies heading our way though, so I believe 2025 may actually end up being the best year for EVs so far.
Yep this is exactly why I'm delaying. Waiting till March to see what Kia EV3 and Cupra Born VZ trim looks like
The real reason is the lack of stock for the new EV manufacturing leader - BYD which has the biggest sales. They haven't had any available stock in January. The new shipment is to arrive only in March-April.
My local Byd dealer just got restocked but mostly shark and sea lion 6s, EVs are due towards the end of feb in reliable numbers
This is why you need to be really careful drawing conclusions from highly variable monthly sales data. Trends need to hold for at least a few months before they can be relied upon.
Also, it is pretty remarkable the Model Y was still the best-selling model in the month in which it's replacement version is announced. A lot of people have been waiting for a long time for the Y refresh so I think that is going to sell really well once it gets here from May!
“However, the Government needs to reconsider the steps it can take to build consumer confidence in EVs, otherwise their ambitious NVES targets will not be met.”
Tony Weber needs to think about what the FCAI could do to build consumer confidence in EVs, and do what it can to help meet the NVES targets… oh, wait, it’s always someone else’s problem, isn’t it. Apparently the FCAI are completely passive bystanders in this, with zero ability to influence outcomes. Sheesh…
Given the historic trash-talking of BEVs that members of the FCAI have engaged in, and the fighting tooth-and-nail against emissions standards, does that read like the rap-sheet of an organization that wants EVs to succeed? 🤔
Exactly. He should crawl back under the rock he came from.
Why do ev’s make up 5% of the market, but the majority of what motoring journos and their publications speak about?
Future orientation
People love speculation about the future. EVs are also contentious, so it gets the clicks.
What can you say about a ute that is the same as the year before and the year before that.
Newsflash, nobody with two brain cells wants them.
Yep, that two brain cell group can’t even do the mathematics required to understand the running costs vs ICE. How hard is to understand $13 per 100Km vs $1.30 per 100Km? Too hard I guess.
But anyone with more than two brain cells does. Anthony has spotted the difference!
EV sales haven't crashed at all infact, they dropped a smidge less than the overall down market.
Again. BEVs + PHEVs equals EVs
in 2024 EVs or Plug ins were 5873.
In 2025 EV or Plug ins were 5740.
I agree with the tenor of your comment but not all of the details.
A fall in sales from December 2024 to January 2025 would primarily reflect seasonal factors so the drop in sales is neither surprising nor concerning. However, if Riz' numbers are right then there was indeed a year on year fall in BEV sales in Jan 2025 as compared to Jan 2024 (3832 this year vs 4902 last year). It doesn't help though that in the paragraph beginning 'In January 2024' Riz manages to jumble up data from 2024 and 2025.
Your inclination to seek to correct Riz by drawing on NEV (New Energy Vehicle) sales data distorts rather than clarifies the EV sales situation. PHEVS aren't EVs as a matter of definition although PHEVs + EVs = NEVs.
Note:
1) EREVs (a subcategory of PHEV) from an architectural point of view are rather EV-like, viz. all of the normal EV pieces are there and they all work together in the standard EV way. EREVs do use a small petrol engine but only as a range extending generator to charge an amply proportioned battery. There is no mechanical connection between the EREV petrol engine and the driven wheels - that part is all electric.
2) Notwithstanding all of these similarities EREVs still aren't EVs, viz. they aren't all electric. And granting that an EV is an all electric vehicle then the terms EV and BEV are functionally equivalent.
3) For anyone who wants a very EV-like experience but doesn't want to jettison the security blanket of familiarity and established practice, EREVs represent an optimal solution - filling up the petrol tank is only ever required for relatively long trips. But, things do get quite tight under the bonnet of an EREV. (The same is true of PHEVs broadly speaking.) The use of high quality electric hub motors, however, could effectively reduce the contention over space between the electric and petrol components of an EREV. While hardly a technical ideal, hub motors might be the right choice for an EREV.