Australia's best-selling EVs halfway through 2024

There are just six months left in 2024 – or we’ve just completed six months of the year, depending on your outlook – and Australia’s electric vehicle (EV) sales race is shaping up to be anything but a tight contest.

Against an overall market which is 8.7 per cent up on 2023’s record numbers with 632,412 vehicles delivered so far this year, EVs have contributed 50,219 sales – though this doesn’t include Polestar figures after it stopped reporting VFACTS data.

This figure is up by 16.5 per cent on the same period last year, though EVs still only account for less than eight per cent of the new vehicle market.

If not for global leader Tesla, it would be a very different story, as the US EV giant’s Model Y SUV and Model 3 sedan have combined for 23,116 sales in the opening half of 2023, experiencing a drop on last year’s results and rarely dipping below half of the market share.

While its challengers aren’t closing in at an alarming rate, BYD has proven – both in Australia and overseas – to be its nearest competitor, occupying third, fourth and sixth on the sales charts with its Seal sedan, Atto 3 SUV and Dolphin Hatchback.

The MG 4 continues to outperform its Dolphin and GWM Ora rivals by placing itself fifth amongst the EV market, well and truly making use of the brand’s new-generation platform.

Perhaps surprisingly given their price, the BMW iX1 (the electric X1) and i4 (electric 4 Series Gran Coupe) are among the most popular EVs in Australia, outselling the Kia EV6 and Volvo’s C40/XC40 Recharge twins.

Volvo’s new EX30, the carmaker’s cheapest EV, appears to be a great success for the brand locally, debuting in May and already slotting into 11th place for the year, usurping its Polestar 2 cousin which has received price cuts to try and climb up the sales chart.

Interestingly, 39 of the 64 EVs on sale in Australia come from electric-only nameplates, and all but one of the 15 best-sellers account for at least half of a model’s sales – even if they have slightly different names.

Despite receiving price cuts to become Australia’s cheapest EV, the GWM Ora hasn’t been able to move from its 16th position in the sales charts, and it’s at risk of losing the spot to the more expensive Toyota bZ4X, the Japanese giant’s first EV in local showrooms.

Australia’s only factory-backed electric ute, the LDV eT60 continues to contribute little to the brand’s sales, with just eight examples delivered so far this year – accounting for less than a quarter of a percent of T60 sales.

MORE: VFACTS: Australia’s best-selling EVs in 2024 so far