I went to Everything Electric: Here is what caught my eye

On Saturday, I went to the Everything Electric car and electrification show in Sydney. I came away very happy with what I saw.

There are some great deals on offer. The GWM Ora is a very cute town runabout. It is comparable in size to a VW beetle or a Mini. At just $33,000 it would make a great second car

However, the EV that caught my eye was the Skyworth BE11. This new bran’d wont hit the show room till later this year. It’s a large medium SUV with an 86 kWh battery for $49,000 drive away. That’s a very sharp price for a decent size battery. However, it may be cheap for a reason.

In the luxury people mover space, the Zeekr 009 looked good. It is much better value likely than  the Xpeng G9, its interior screen is like a TV in the back, but most of the grandkids grow up looking at their own iPads so do they want a big screen?

In terms of cars I could see myself in if I wanted a replacement for my Hyundai Ioniq 5, they would include the Zeekr 7xm, the Xpeng G6, which out Tesla’s Tesla Model Y and undercuts it on price, and Tthe Polestar 3, which has a lovely interior.

I think the other car likely to do well is the new, good looking and built for the Australian market Kia EV3. This builds on the EV5 (good value for money) and the EV6. The EV3 has improved little details about the EV5.

I also saw a Cement Australia premix truck converted to electric( I always thought pre mix trucks very well suited to electric. In this case it uses a swappable battery that was quickly moved in and out with a forklift that I saw demonstrated) plus some great looking electric vans and other equipment.

The general vibe was that the Chinese wave has yet to really hit. There were lots of left hand drive models shown, but not obviously launched in Australia. 2025 might not be the year for mass adoption of EVs, but the underlying ground swell is strong.