Polestar has topped EV sales in June, as Tesla deliveries slowed to a trickle on the back of Shanghai factory shutdowns, bringing the share of electric vehicle sales in Australia’s new car market down to little more than 1 per cent.
But, an exciting six months is in store as Tesla readies to deliver the popular best-selling Model Y, alongside other popular models such as the new BYD Atto 3 and a refreshed MG ZS EV.
The June data also includes – for the first time – official data for all EV car makers for an entire six months, which confirms Tesla as the clear leader now it shares its data with the local auto market.
However, from January to June 2022, just 9,680 EVs were sold – a third below expectations due to global supply chain issues that have affected sales of all types of vehicles.
In the first six months just under half – 4,653 to be precise – were Tesla Model 3s (currently the only EV from the now Texas-based EV maker being delivered to customers locally.).
Tesla’s low market share is a big change from 2021 when seven in 10 EVs sold were made by Tesla. But it’s also a sign of changes afoot for the local EV market as more EV models are introduced by other carmakers.
Nevertheless, the most immediate reason behind Tesla’s drop in market share – in a month that is traditionally its highest for deliveries – is of course because the EV maker practically stopped shipping Model 3s altogether in the second quarter of 2022.
Because of this, and due to ongoing supply chain issues and factory shutdowns in China due to the pandemic, the market share for EVs dropped to just 1.1% in June. For the six-month period, the share was down to 1.8%.
Customers awaiting EVs such as the Polestar 2 and the XC40 Pure Recharge have been met with disappointment as orders were cancelled or they were asked to refile after features were changed due to the global chip shortage.
An outgoing Coalition government that was openly hostile towards uptake of all-electric, zero-emissions transport options, delaying certainty for carmakers and therefore making it difficult for local arms to secure inventory despite unprecedented demand for more models like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6.
The Driven is still awaiting confirmation of EV sales figures for many models that share their names with ICE stablemates (the Ioniq fastback, Kona EV, Lexus UX 300e, Mazda MX-30, MG ZS EV, and Mini Cooper Electric).
What we know so far is that – pending figures from the above – Polestar sold the most EVs in June (201 Polestar 2s), followed by 172 Tesla Model 3s, and 102 Hyundai Ioniq 5s. Kia sold just 61 EV6 electric crossovers, and 17 of the outgoing 2019 e-Niros (Kia tells us this was made up of 5 S variants, 6 Sport variants and 6 GT-Lines).
The luxury EV segments were led by the Volvo XC40 Pure Recharge (78 cars), Porsche Taycan (47), Mercedes-Benz EQC (31 cars), BMW iX and Mercedes-Benz EQA (28 cars each), the BMW i4 (27 cars), and 5 Jaguar I-Paces.
Two Mercedes-Benz EQS were also registered as the German carmaker gears up to launch it here locally (stay tuned for our drive impressions in mid-July!).
Whilst EV sales for the first half of 2022 have been somewhat dampened, the upcoming second half promises to make up for this in spades.
The Model Y is set to join the Model 3 as Tesla deliveries pick up again off the back of Shanghai production resuming.
It is thought that as of late June, Tesla had received more than 12,000 orders for the Model Y within two weeks of opening the order page. Readers have told us that just one Sydney location said they were still taking 50 orders a day as the month came to an end.
Not all these will be delivered by the end of 2022. But, it is entirely possible that Tesla will deliver 12,000-15,000 EVs in the next six months.
To a lesser extent, also expect the BYD importer EV Direct to hit the ground running with its Atto 3. Having informed customers on Friday of a 6-8 week delivery delay, it will miss some expected milestones in July.
We are also awaiting news on the arrival of the refreshed MG ZS EV, of which it has been taking pre-orders to the tune of a few hundred a month.
The EV sales leaderboard to date this year is thus so (including ZS EV pre-sales from MG up to May, and pending figures mentioned above):
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.