EV sales are growing in Australia, thanks to BYD, Kia and Chinese newcomers

As 2025 draws to a close, it is the perfect time to reflect on EV sales for the year and take a look at the biggest trends that are occurring. Several things clearly stood out once I finished entering the November sales data and updating the cumulative charts shown below.

Before looking at the trends it is worth calling out the total BEV sales increase year over year, as I still had someone just the other day ask why EV sales are falling. With 92,885 BEV sales reported by FCAI and EVC up to November 2025, we have already beaten the 2024 total of 91,293 and are comfortably on track for at least 10% growth this year.

A large part of that growth comes down to BYD boosting their sales significantly as well as other Chinese newcomers hitting the ground running, more than offsetting the decline in Tesla sales. 

While the negative attitude towards Tesla seems to have softened recently, there is clearly a lingering impact as they are down 24 % year over year with 26,271 sales vs 34,754 in the period to November 2024. Increased competition and model choice is certainly having an impact on Tesla sales too.

In contrast, BYD has grown 58 % this year, registering 21,174 sales to November 2025, up from 13,389 by November last year. This is due to the Sealion 7, which now accounts for more than half of BYD’s volume, cannibalising Atto 3 and Seal along the way, both falling compared to the previous year.

Looking at Tesla vs the rest of the market, the impact of increased competition is clearly visible with Tesla now accounting for roughly 25 % market share, compared to their prior dominance of the market up until the third quarter of 2023. 

The cyclical nature of Tesla sales is also clearly visible on the chart above, they typically follow a pattern of low sales in the first month of each quarter, medium in the second month and high sales to close out the quarter.

With this in mind, Tesla should surpass 30,000 sales for the year and comfortably finish in first place. However, as I wrote in October, BYD is poised to take the lead from Tesla next year with more models on the way. Atto 2 has already appeared with 365 sales in November, confirming BYD’s volume predictions. The even lower priced Atto 1 is next.

Model 3 vs Model Y breakdown

Briefly touching on the breakdown of Tesla’s models, the trend of falling Model 3 sales continues in 2025. Model 3 and Model Y were fairly close throughout 2024, accounting for 45 % and 55 % of sales respectively, due to the refreshed Model 3 performing well.

Now the Model Y has been refreshed, it dominates the picture again in 2025, apart from January, April and July when Tesla sales dipped below 1,000 in total. Percentage wise, Model Y accounts for 77 % of Tesla’s 2025 sales.

Kia makes big gains with new models

Kia has been one of the biggest movers in 2025, up 140 % year over year, from 6th place in 2024 with 3,610 sales to now sit in 3rd place with 7,699 year to date. This is primarily due to the EV5 and EV3 which make up 90 % of their volume.

Chinese newcomers off to a flying start

The rise of Chinese brands up the Australian EV sales charts cannot be ignored. A few of these newcomers are off to a flying start, with strong performance even though some only have one model available for now.

Geely EX5 registered its first sales in March, and has performed consistently well since with a high of 822 sales in June. The EX5 is currently in 5th place on the sales by model charts, and the brand will finish the year in 6th position overall. They are nipping at the heels of BMW which is impressive from a single Geely model vs BMW’s lineup of 7.

XPeng G6 sales have been a mystery until recently, as they are still not reporting their monthly sales through either the FCAI VFacts report or Electric Vehicle Council. TrueEV responded to repeated attempts to obtain sales data with similar messages, “At this stage, TrueEV doesn’t have confirmed timings or plans to release this data publicly.”

“The team is still reviewing the most suitable approach to local reporting, and we’ll be sure to keep you in the loop should this position change or when more information becomes available.” 

Speaking with XPeng at Everything Electric in Melbourne recently, they finally gave us a number of 1,700 – 1,800 G6 deliveries up until October, with another shipment expected to bring the total over 2,000 for the year. These figures put the XPeng G6 in 11th place on the model charts and 11th place as a brand overall. 

Zeekr has also performed strongly since entering the market in February this year. The brand is currently in 13th place, although Zeekr could easily overtake the next few to finish within the top 10 if they have another big month of 7X deliveries in December. 

Biggest falls from established brands

With strong performance by many of these new Chinese brands described above, there are inevitably downsides for some of the well established brands. With a strong lineup and solid models, it is somewhat surprising to see Volvo drop 40 % year over year, from 5th place in 2024 to 9th. They have also been overtaken by the closely related Polestar in 8th.

Hyundai has dropped several places this year too, down from 8th last year to 12th position currently. Their volumes have also dropped 32 % year over year, perhaps impacted by stronger competition against the Ioniq 5 and Kona EV which were somewhat popular in the past.

GWM is another brand on the decline, dropping from 10th last year to 18th. A 42 % drop in sales for the ageing GWM Ora could also be explained by strong competition from new models at the low end of the market.

See our full data here: Australian electric vehicle sales by month in 2025 – by model and by brand