Electric Car sales on the rise in Australia as Tesla ramps up Model Y and BYD enters the market

November new-car sales figures have been released and while it’s still small numbers there’s been big growth in the Electric Car space as we round out 2022.

Tesla reported sales of an additional 1,805 Model Y’s and 391 Model 3’s, making a total of 17,328 Tesla’s since June 30.

That figure is more overall than Audi has sold in one month, the same goes for Honda, LDV and several others – with Tesla selling just two models in Australia currently.

In total, 4,457 Electric Cars were sold in Australia in November, representing around 4.68% of all sales.

Importantly though, in just the Passenger and SUV market, the figure jumps to 5.8%. I give this number because Commercial Vehicles like the Ranger/Hilux have no real electric equivalent just yet – with LDV jumping into that market in recent weeks, albeit at a huge price.

New brand to Australia BYD has entered the VFACTS reporting market, as revealed earlier this year by EFTM, reporting 845 sales in November.

That’s almost 19% of all Electric Vehicle Sales, in just it’s first month of reporting.

BYD has had a rocky start, with huge interest, followed by some concerns from buyers around their changed warranty terms, service pricing and more recently a halt in deliveries to adjust for ANCAP certification, including removing an Airbag on-off switch and labelling the rear centre seat top child safety tether.

EV Direct’s Luke Todd, the man behind BYD in Australia, told EFTM “We are glad to have our first reported data on VFACTS. The combined year to date delivery of BYD vehicles is actually above 1000 which is a great start.

This indicates that BYD has not reported pre-November sales – something Tesla did the first time they entered the VFACTS data numbers.

Mr Todd went on to foreshadow a positive end to the year for BYD “With bulk delivery now back underway in December post our slight pause in delivery whilst we addressed the child seat anchorage item we are looking forward to a very healthy volume to report to close out 2022.”

5.8% of sales is huge, but it’s a long way from Electric Vehicle dominance. More needs to be done on education, charging infrastructure and most importantly bringing down the price of EV cars.

EFTM predicts the low priced end of the market, with brands like MG and BYD, will dominate the sector 2023 and beyond as the appetite for EVs grows, but prices of the bigger brands remain out of reach of more Australians.