EV sales race winners: These were Australia’s best-selling EVs in the first half of 2024

Tesla held firm to fight off new rivals by remaining Australia first- and second-best selling EVs on the market – although the company’s electric car share slipped below 50 percent for the first time.

Tesla reported 12,516 Model Y SUVs as sold and 10,600 Model 3s found homes in a bumper first half of 2024 that saw more than 50,000 electric vehicles sold from January until the end of June.

Despite predictions of doom and gloom for EV sales the figure represents a new record following 18 percent growth over the same period for last year.

The latest figures sound like another triumph for the US car-maker that accounted for more than 43.5 percent of total sales of EVs, but that figure is down from 2023’s 59.5 percent as more rivals arrive to take a piece of the EV pie.

In third place of H1 of 2024 was the BYD Seal that racked up an impressive 4092 deliveries. The BYD Atto 3 SUV (3726) missed the podium and secured a fourth spot.

In fifth was the MG4 hatch (2771 sales), followed by the sixth-place BYD Dolphin (1248), the BMW iX1 (1237) in seventh and the BMW i4 (1177) in eighth.

Taking up the last couple of spots is the Kia EV6 (1060) in ninth and the tenth-place Volvo EX30 (1001) with the recently introduced small Swedish SUV narrowly pipping the more establish Polestar 2 (950).

If you’re wondering what some of the slowest-selling EVs of 2024 were, wonder no more.

The first half of 2024 was dismal for the Jaguar I-Pace (5) and depressing for the luxurious Mercedes-Benz EQS (6) but beating both for disappointment was the much-cheaper Mazda MX-30, with the Japanese brand racking up just three deliveries, following the decision to axe the small SUV in Australia was taken back in late October 2023.

Total sales in the first six months of 2024 topped 51,008 with Australia on track to register more than 100,000 EVs in a single year for the first time in car buying history.

EVs now account for 8 percent of all new vehicles sold in an overall market up 8.7 percent year to date. While that represents growth of 18.0 percent, it’s also a big slowdown in growth from the past few years.

But with dozens of new models due soon there will be increased competition that could push EV sales to new highs.