2024 EV sales in Australia: A deep dive into the electric car market that saw Tesla drop, BYD grow – and 10 new brands enter the market

• Australians bought a record 91,292 EVs in 2024, an increase of 4.7%
• 77% of all EVs sold here were sourced from China
• Tesla sales dropped 16.9%, but it still sells 42% of all EVs
• The Tesla Model 3 outsold the Toyota Camry for the second year
• 36 brands sold EVs in Australia in 2024, 10 of which sold no EVs in 2023
• 13 brands sold fewer EVs in 2024 compared with 2023
• Luxury brands outperform mainstream marques on EV sales

Sales of electric cars in Australia inched up in 2024.

That means we bought more EVs than ever in 2024.

A total of 91,292 pure battery electric vehicles (BEVs) were added to Australian roads throughout the year.

It’s a decent number, albeit not a spectacular one.

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It looks far less impressive when you consider the stratospheric percentage growth for EVs over recent years.

In 2021 we bought 17,243 EVs before annual growth of 94 percent (taking the 2022 tally to 33,410) followed by growth into 2023 of 161 percent (for 87,217 sales).

The growth between 2023 and 2024 was a more subdued 4.7 percent, which is indicative of how much tougher it is trying to convince regular Aussies into EVs.

Many of the early adopters have jumped.

Many in the industry say it’s harder getting the mainstream to break their petrol/diesel habit.

In that largely flat overall EV market there are some interesting results, starting with the big one – Tesla.

Let’s talk Tesla

Believe the headlines and you’d think Tesla is about to fizzle under a high voltage rock due to an unprecedented sales slump.

Yep, Tesla sales dropped. A fair bit.

The brand sold 7769 fewer EVs in Australia in 2024 than it did in 2023. That’s a 16.9 percent fall.

But there were a lot of sales to drop.

Tesla has dominated the EV market – and it still does.

Until last year it accounted for more than half of all EV sales.

But in the same way as Toyota’s share of hybrid sales is dropping – Toyota is selling more cars, but increased competition means hybrid share has dropped – Tesla’s EV share is also dropping.

Tesla’s 38,347 sales in 2024 accounted for 42 percent of the entire electric car segment.

Two out of every five EVs Aussies bought were Teslas.

And the Model 3 and Model Y – the only two cars Tesla sells here – are still dominant in their respective market segments.

The Model 3 is the best-selling mid-sized car on the market. It’s outsold the Toyota Camry for two years.

The Model Y is one of the top selling SUVs in the country (out of about 150 options, only six other SUVs outsold it in 2024).

And in the premium end of the SUV market Tesla dominates.

Australians bought 57,087 mid-sized SUVs priced over $60,000 and 21,253 of them – more than one in three – were a Tesla Model Y.

The next best seller was the Lexus NX, with 6123 sales (351 of which were plug-in hybrids).

So, yes, Tesla sales dropped. But it’s still the dominant EV brand. And in 2025 its top seller – the Model Y – has been rejuvenated. First deliveries of the updated Model Y Juniper are due in May.

Plenty saw EV sales shrink

There were 36 brands that sold at least one EV in 2024 (some of them are truck brands).

Of those, 13 sold fewer EVs in 2024 than they did in 2023.

Mercedes-Benz had more EV models than any other brand (a total of 11, one of which has since been discontinued) but its electric sales went backwards 14.1 per cent.

Polestar also shed 30.5 percent of its sales in 2024 and fledgling Volkswagen-owned brand Cupra sold almost half as many EVs last year as it did the year prior.

Genesis went backwards 68 percent on EVs, as did Porsche (32.7 percent), Nissan (26.2 percent) and Lexus (18.8 percent).

Mazda sold just three EVs in 2024, down from 13 (pitiful numbers) in 2023.

And struggling Jaguar sold just 12 EVs, down from 35.

13 brands with a reason to celebrate

There were 13 brands that sold more EVs in 2024 – some of them a lot more.

BMW had the biggest reason to celebrate. It was not only the fourth biggest seller of EVs in Australia in 2024, but its sales grew by 160 percent.

Almost 30 percent of all BMWs sold here – it’s comfortably the top selling luxury brand – was powered only by electricity.

The additional 4797 BMW electric car sales was more than the EV growth for the entire market (4075).

In other words, if BMW hadn’t grown as much, sales of electric cars may have gone backwards.

Other brands that had a bumper EV year included MG, up 2311 sales or 39 percent.

BYD’s battery electric share also grew 14.6 percent and with 12,438 sales the brand is a clear number two in the EV sales race.

Kia also increased 18.8 percent, Hyundai 11.3 percent, GWM 133 percent and Mini 104 percent.

New brands added to the EV mix

Ten new brands sold their first EV in Australia in 2024, including some heavy hitters such as Toyota and Subaru.

The others were Chery, Fiat, Jeep, Leapmotor, Skoda, Lotus, Iveco and Volkswagen (14 ID.Buzzes made it into the 2024 sales figures).

But none – not even Toyota, which sells almost one in five of all new vehicles – made a big impact.

Between those 10 brands new to the EV segment they sold just 1977 cars, accounting for 2.1 percent of overall EV sales.

Toyota says it wants to increase its EV share (which shouldn’t be difficult given the low numbers).

But the brand also doesn’t currently have the firepower with the bZ4X that has struggled to find buyers.

Prestige and luxury drivers buy more EVs

The luxury market loves EVs, as the 2024 sales figures reinforce.

While some prestige and luxury brands still don’t have an EV presence (Land Rover, Maserati, Alfa Romeo and Ferrari among them) others have tiny sales (Audi and Lexus continue to languish in the EV market).

But of the 147,425 prestige and luxury cars sold last year 57,014 of them – or 39 percent – were powered purely by batteries.

Now that figure includes Tesla, which some argue isn’t a prestige brand (although with a starting price of about $60K it certainly has prestige prices).

But even if you pull Tesla out of that then 17 percent of all luxury cars sold were EVs. That’s more than double the 7.4 percent market share across the rest of the industry.

And some brands had some impressive results.

We’ve covered off BMW – an impressive 29.6 percent EV share – and its prestige small car sibling Mini managed 28 percent of its sales as EVs.

Volvo was even better, with 43 per cent of its Australian sales EVs (it sold a fraction less than 2023, down 2.2 percent).

Of 54 Rolls-Royces sold in Australia last year 35 percent of them were the all-electric Spectre.

Even Lotus managed to beat the overall market, with 11 percent of its 155 sales EVs.

China dominates

If you’re buying an EV there’s a good chance it’ll come from China.

Last year 77 percent of all EVs sold here were sourced from China.

Obviously that includes Chinese brands such as LDV, Chery, MG, GWM and BYD, but it also includes Tesla, Polestar, Volvo, two Minis (the Aceman and electric Coopers), one BMW (the iX3) and one Kia (the EV5).

The two Lotus EVs – Eletre and Emeya – are also from China (the brand is these days owned by Geely, which also owns Volvo, among others).

While some have hesitations about buying cars from China, the country is leading the way on EV development right now.

EVs more popular than petrol for mid-sized passenger cars

For the first time medium passenger cars (sedans, hatches and wagons) powered by electricity outsold those fuelled by petrol.

It’s a remarkable feat when you consider some of the big names in the mid-sized passenger car category: Toyota Camry, BMW 3-Series, Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Mazda6, Honda Accord and the Audi A4.

Of 46,146 sold last year 27,382 – 59 percent of them – were EVs.

Of course, the big seller was the Tesla Model 3, which accounted for 17,094 of those sales.

But the BYD Seal (6393) was also a popular four-door sedan, comfortably outselling the Mazda6, Mercedes C-Class and BMW 3-Series.

With 2062 sales the BMW i4 was almost as popular as the 3-Series (2472 sales).

And while the Polestar 2 went backwards on sales, its 1459 units shifted represented a healthy effort.

The final EV in the mid-sized category was the Hyundai Ioniq 6, with just 374 sales.

What about hydrogen?

Hydrogen fuel cell cars are still a minnow in the electrified world.

Last year Toyota brought another nine Mirais into the country and Hyundai a single Nexo.

None were sold to customers, just leased because each brand wants to be able to take them back and control who the cars are driven by.

But each also sees a viable longer term place for FCEVs (as does BMW).

At its sales announcement Toyota Australia sales and marketing chief Sean Hanley reiterated that he believes hydrogen fuel cell will play a role in Australia, but not until around 2035.

EV sales ranked: Every EV sold in Australia in 2024

Rank	Make	Model	Sales
1	Tesla	Model Y	21,253
2	Tesla	Model 3	17,094
3	MG	MG4	6,934
4	BYD	Seal	6,393
5	BYD	Atto 3	5,751
6	BMW	iX1	2,618
7	Volvo	EX30	2,129
8	BYD	Dolphin	2,116
9	BMW	i4	2,062
10	Kia	EV6	1,785
11	Polestar	2	1,459
12	Hyundai	Kona	1,363
13	BMW	iX2	1,280
14	MG	ZS EV	1,262
15	GWM	Ora	1,225
16	Volvo	XC40	1,173
17	BMW	iX3	1,092
18	Mercedes-Benz	EQA	1,044
19	Toyota	bZ4X	977
20	Hyundai	Ioniq 5	933
21	Mercedes-Benz	EQE SUV	759
22	Ford	Mustang Mach-E	673
23	Kia	Niro Electric	649
24	Kia	EV5	608
25	Kia	EV9	568
26	Volvo	C40	560
27	BMW	iX	556
28	Mini	Countryman EV	516
29	Mercedes-Benz	EQB	504
30	Cupra	Born	465
31	Mini	Cooper Electric	426
32	Subaru	Solterra	386
33	Hyundai	Ioniq 6	374
34	Audi	Q4 e-tron	357
35	Nissan	Leaf	357
36	Porsche	Taycan	282
37	Renault	Megane E-Tech	266
38	Lexus	RZ	215
39	Peugeot	e-2008	207
40	Chery	Omoda E5	197
41	Fiat	500e/Abarth	194
42	Mini	Aceman	183
43	Polestar	4	183
44	Audi	Q8 e-tron	174
45	Mercedes-Benz	EQE	162
46	LDV	eDeliver 7	150
47	BMW	i5	143
48	Mercedes-Benz	EQS SUV	136
49	Audi	e-tron GT	100
50	Lexus	UX	92
51	Peugeot	e-Partner	92
52	Jeep	Avenger	79
53	Porsche	Macan EV	78
54	Polestar	3	71
55	Genesis	GV60	70
56	Ford	E-Transit	69
57	Mercedes-Benz	EQC	69
58	Foton	Mobility T5	68
59	Leapmotor	C10	64
60	Renault	Kangoo E-Tech	64
61	Skoda	Enyaq	48
62	MG	Cyberster	43
63	BMW	i7	36
64	LDV	eDeliver 9	28
65	LDV	eT60	28
66	Mercedes-Benz	e-Vito	23
67	LDV	Mifa 9	20
68	Mercedes-Benz	EQS	20
69	Hyundai	Mighty	19
70	Rolls-Royce	Spectre	19
71	Genesis	GV70 Electrified	17
72	Mercedes-Benz	EQV	14
73	Jaguar	I-Pace	12
74	Lotus	Eletre	12
75	Peugeot	e-Expert	9
76	Sea Electric	MD	9
77	Volkswagen	ID.Buzz	8
78	Mercedes-Benz	e-Sprinter	6
79	Volkswagen	ID.Buzz Cargo	6
80	Audi	Q6 e-tron	5
81	Lotus	Emeya	5
82	Genesis	G80 Electrified	4
83	Mazda	MX-30 EV	3
84	SEA Electric	HD	3
85	Peugeot	e-308	2
86	Iveco	HD van	1
87	Mercedes-Benz	G580e	1

EV by brand: Every car maker’s Australian EV sales in 2024

Make	2024 EV sales	Change compared to 2023	% change
Tesla	38,347	-7,769	-16.8%
BYD	14,260	1,822	+14.6%
MG	8,239	2,311	+39.0%
BMW	7,787	4,797	+160.4%
Volvo	3,862	-87	-2.2%
Kia	3,610	571	+18.8%
Mercedes-Benz	2,738	-450	-14.1%
Hyundai	2,689	272	+11.3%
Polestar	1,713	-750	-30.5%
GWM	1,225	699	+132.9%
Mini	1,125	574	+104.2%
Toyota	977	977	–
Ford	742	630	+562.5%
Audi	636	97	+18.0%
Cupra	465	-422	-47.6%
Subaru	386	386	–
Porsche	360	-175	-32.7%
Nissan	357	-127	-26.2%
Renault	330	309	+1471.4%
Peugeot	310	182	+142.2%
Lexus	307	-71	-18.8%
LDV	226	87	+62.6%
Chery	197	197	–
Fiat	194	194	–
Genesis	91	-189	-67.5%
Jeep	79	79	–
Foton	68	-3	-4.2%
Leapmotor	64	64	–
Skoda	48	48	–
Rolls-Royce	19	16	+533.3%
Lotus	17	17	–
Volkswagen	14	14	–
Jaguar	12	-23	-65.7%
Sea Electric	12	-14	-53.8%
Mazda	3	-10	-76.9%
Iveco	1	1	–