Electric News

BYD has smashed through a sales milestone. The brand said it has made more than 50 per cent of its total revenue from export markets, rather than from its domestic sales in the Chinese market. This is due to BYD’s efforts in the last several years growing both its exports and its overseas manufacturing efforts in order to escape a stagnant Chinese new car market, which has contracted after a long period of explosive growth. The brand’s sales in China declined by 12 per cent, but it grew its exports by a whopping 137 per cent, to well over half a million units, according to BYD’s third quarter numbers for 2026. The Chinese market has reached a level of saturation and stagnation after several years of a bruising price war, which many competitors have pointed the finger at BYD’s aggressive domestic pricing strategy, overseas markets have become a crucial battleground for their future growth aspirations. Profit margins on vehicles sold in Australia, Europe and South America are exponentially higher than cars sold domestically in China. This is part of the reason sticker prices in the Chinese market are significantly lower than those we see in other markets. Price tags for the Australian vehicles generally attract a 15 - 20 per cent premium over the equivalent spec offered in China. Part of this will be down to right-hand drive conversion costs, and higher compliance costs for vehicles to meet Australia’s notoriously strict design standards and high bar for a maximum five-star ANCAP score. One analyst, as quoted in Nikkei Asia’s analysis of BYD’s latest sales numbers, said the company earns “roughly 10 times more profit per vehicle abroad than in China”. A part of this is vehicles sold in developed markets like Australia are offered in higher trim levels than they are in the Chinese domestic market, although the slew of larger, more expensive 4WDs and growth of luxury sub-brands like BYD’s Denza or Geely’s Zeekr are also massively helping to buff profit margins. GWM proclaims that it has doubled its average sale price in the last seven years in Australia as it has introduced pricier, better-featured vehicles, both from its Haval SUV brand and its Tank off-road brand further up the price scale. “The year-on-year increase in volume has also come with new cars at more expensive price points. If we can do that at the same time as showing customers value no matter the price then we’re on the right track." the brand’s Executive General Manager of Marketing and Communications Steve Maciver told CarsGuide recently. GWM is set to introduce its dedicated luxury arm Wey into Australia before the end of 2026. While Chinese brands continue to dominate the sales charts in Australia, where the barrier to entry is significantly lower, automakers like BYD, Geely, and Chery are facing tariffs in Europe and the USA as those jurisdictions move to protect their own domestic automaking capabilities. This is putting a cap on their respective ambitions, but each brand is also moving to diversify and acquire manufacturing capacity not only across Europe, but also in other strategic markets like South Korea and closer to home in South East Asia. Legacy automakers are feeling the crunch. Domestically this means household names like Subaru and Nissan dropping out of the race to be a top-10 automaker by sales, but internationally it means a massive squeeze in profit margins, big expenditure in research and development, and a large reduction in market share. This has resulted in many large international brands like Volkswagen and Nissan resorting to closing factories or cutting jobs by the thousands, with some brands needing to embrace Chinese joint-venture partnerships more closely to build more competitive models for export. Nissan, for example, shut down its historic Oppama factory in Japan as part of its Re:Nissan business overhaul, as it looks to reduce its capacity by a million units. As of the end of September 2026, the top-10 rankings in Australia are: Toyota (152,944 units) BYD (76614 units) Ford (61104 units) Kia (60800 units) Mazda (58865 units) Hyundai (56009 units) GWM (44959 units) Tesla (41705 units) Chery (38022 units) MG (36832 units)

Toyota is gearing up to soon reveal a new-generation version of its Corolla and it has detailed some more information about the powertrains it will have.

Subaru is preparing to break away from Toyota and control its own electric car destiny. The Japanese brand has so far co-developed a range of EVs, including the Solterra, Trailseeker and Uncharted SUVs currently on sale in Australia, with the world’s biggest carmaker. But it has always had ambitions to develop its own EVs, and that day is fast approaching, according to reports in AutoNews. Subaru has shown an electric car prototype to Japanese media, with several technologies showcased. The prototype wore the shell of an old-gen Subaru Outback, but what was underneath was quite different. It had two electric motors enabling all-wheel drive grip, pumping out 380kW and delivering a 0-100km/h time of less than four seconds. The vehicle is also capable of over-the-air software updates, which are commonplace in Chinese electric vehicles and allow the car to be improved as time goes on. A Panasonic battery powers the prototype, and it is 25 per cent lighter than the previous battery and the company is targeting a 20 per cent increase in energy density. Subaru said it had developed these technologies in half the time it usually does, which would help it keep pace with the rapid development of EVs from China. Other carmakers such as Nissan are embracing what is termed “China Speed” to help shorten new car development times. Subaru executives didn’t provide any firm dates on when the EV would enter production, but 2029 would be the earliest. Subaru is developing a whole new electric vehicle platform to underpin its next-generation of zero-emissions vehicles. Inchcape has long had the contract to distribute Subarus in Australia, but the company’s global boss was not happy with the company’s performance Down Under. In a recent quarterly earnings announcement Inchcape Group Chief Executive Duncan Tait took aim at Subaru’s lack of competitiveness. “Australia remains a challenge - our key brand (Subaru) has underperformed, with deteriorating competitiveness in a rapidly-evolving market,” he said. Subaru has taken too long to deliver hybrid versions of its key vehicles, its electric car range is not selling as well as its Toyota siblings and it can’t compete with Chinese examples on price or performance. News that a new in-house developed EV is still years away won’t be welcome news.

The fastest charging car to hit Australian shores is going to take a little longer to roll into dealerships. The Denza Z9 GT four-door electric grand tourer was planned to go on sale before the end of 2026, but that has pushed into either late quarter one or early quarter two next year. The news comes as the wild performance EV has been spotted testing on Australian roads. According to a Denza Australia representative, the company did not want to rush the rollout of its flagship performance model. That’s the reason the car was spotted in Melbourne’s south-east suburbs - not far from parent company BYD’s Australian HQ - and the north west last week. The spokesperson confirmed that there’s more than one example of the Z9 GT undergoing “fine tuning” to make sure it’s suitable for Australian road conditions before customer deliveries start. “We have teams of local engineers constantly evaluating and fine-tuning both software and hardware items on a range of BYD and Denza vehicles as part of our commitment to offer vehicles that are great to drive on our roads,” they said. Denza Australia has not revealed pricing for the Z9 GT yet, but CarsGuide believes it will be the first Denza model in Australia to breach the $100,000 mark. There aren’t many rivals but similar offerings include the Polestar 5 (from $171,100), Porsche Taycan (from $181,200) and Audi e-tron GT (from $209,900), although the Denza won’t cost anywhere near as much as those electric grand tourers. Standard gear isn’t yet confirmed but expect goodies like air suspension, Nappa leather upholstery, massaging and ventilated seats, a 50-inch augmented reality head-up display, premium stereo system, built-in fridge and 128-colour ambient lighting. The Z9 GT is notable for a number of reasons. The main one is that it introduces BYD’s new blade battery 2.0 technology, as well as its ‘Flash’ charging. This gives the 122.5kWh battery 1500kW DC charging, meaning it can technically fill the battery from 10 to 97 per cent in just nine minutes. Australia's current fastest charger can dish out 400kW. Denza has previously confirmed the Z9 GT has an EV driving range of 1036km, but that is to the far more generous Chinese CLTC protocol. That should dip to a still impressive 820km when it’s rated to the more real-world WLTP standard. Three electric motors combine for a whopping 850kW, allowing for a blistering 0-100km/h sprint time of just 2.7 seconds. The game-changing Flash charging network is expected to be small at first, focusing mostly on metropolitan areas. Some of these will be at Denza dealerships. Denza Australia Chief Operating Officer Mark Harland has previously told CarsGuide that the idea is to install a big enough central battery to deliver the charge, so that vehicles are not drawing off the grid. "It’s something we think can be a real game-changer to the industry, when someone can go for 400 or 500kms in the same time you would fill up at a bowser. They're doing the testing in China to understand the impact on the grid, but they want to back it with a battery, so you’re not drawing off the grid."

Another piece of the ‘Li Auto coming to Australia’ puzzle has seemingly fallen into place with news the premium Chinese brand will go on sale in the UK in 2027. Li Auto has already stated it will produce its electric Li i6 five-seat SUV and Li Mega EV people mover in RHD for sale in Hong Kong, Singapore and other ASEAN nations before the end of 2026. And with the rapidly expanding brand also setting up operations in Malaysia (another RHD market), it feels like a matter of time before those high-profile models arrive Down Under. Confirming the UK move, Li Auto Head of International Business Nestor Wu told Autocar the brand’s line-up will target family buyers with pure-electric and ranger-extender (EREV) options. “Families have different market needs. That’s what we focus on and succeed (with) in China and we think it will work here,” he said. Established in 2015 and offering an eight-model line-up in China, across pure-electric SUV and people mover options, as well EREV SUVs, Li Auto positions itself as a luxury brand “committed to providing products and services that are safer, more comfortable and more convenient for family users.” The Li i6 is the entry-point to the Li Auto range, measuring just under five metres long, close to 2.0m wide and around 1.6m tall with a 3000mm wheelbase. Autocar said Li Auto has adapted the i6 to European tastes, adding air springs for sharper dynamic response than the Chinese market version, where customers typically prefer a softer ride. And in line with the maker’s premium positioning it features a 15.7-inch HD dual screen for backseaters, 20-speaker premium audio and multimedia driven by a high-performance Qualcomm Snapdragon chip set. Highly configurable Nappa leather seats, ambient lighting, power everything, a panoramic roof and close to 730 litres of boot space (with all seats up) mark it as a high-end blend of luxury and practicality. Offered domestically in (250kW/425Nm) single-motor rear-wheel drive and (400kW/660Nm) dual-motor all-wheel drive form, the i6 features an 87.3kWh LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate) battery and supports ultra-fast DC charging for a 10 to 80 per cent top up in less than 15 minutes. Maximum CLTC range is 720km. The Li Mega is a futuristic, strongly aero-influenced (Cd 0.21) luxury people mover offering seven seats including two fully rotating captains chairs in the second row. At over 5.3 metres long, just under 2.0m wide and a bit over 1.8m tall with a 3300mm wheelbase it’s a substantial machine offering everything from heating for all seven seats (ventilation and massage function on the first two rows) multiple large screens, Dolby audio and a dual-purpose refrigerator, to a massive panoramic roof, Nappa leather upholstery and one-touch power doors. With dual electric motors producing overall outputs of 413kW/542Nm this 2.8-tonne beast can blast from 0-100km/h in 4.9 seconds. Its 103kWh NMC (Nickel Manganese Cobalt) battery is good for a quoted CLTC range of 710km and the car’s 800-volt architecture delivers a peak charge capacity of 520kW for a 10-80 per cent charge in just over 10 minutes. The Li i6 single-motor starts at ¥249,800 in China with the dual-motor at ¥269,800. Taking import and distribution costs into account those prices would likely translate to around A$70,000 and A$75,000, respectively, putting it in the same price ballpark as large EV SUV players like the Ford Mach-E (from $65,990), Kia EV6 (from $72,865) and Lexus RZ (from $84,500). The Li Mega costs ¥509,800 in China, which would potentially end up at around A$140,000 here, mixing it with the XPeng X9 (from $89,900) and Zeekr 009 (from $115,900). CarsGuide has contacted Li Auto for comment on the Li i6 and Li Mega’s potential sale in Australia.

Chery has launched Luxeed, a new global sub-brand that is a high-end luxury brand already present in China. Luxeed International CEO Shawn Xu confirmed some details to CarsGuide. The first model to launch for the brand will be the 2027 Luxeed LLounge - the extra L not a typo, but instead meant to represent the brand’s name, and pronounced as the letter ‘L’ before the word ‘Lounge’. It’s a high-end luxury electric people-mover, and it’ll be followed by an electric performance SUV called the Luxeed Stormax, sold as the Luxeed RX in China. The Luxeed LLounge (or Luxeed Luxeed-Lounge?) will arrive mid-year, with Australian testing to take place between now and then, though local specs and pricing haven’t been confirmed. Called the Luxeed V9 in China, the international version features dual-chamber air suspension, a road preview system and is certified for motion sickness reduction by TUV Rheinland. It’s almost 5.4 metres long, but its rear-wheel steering means it has a turning circle of just 5.35m. Rotating welcome seats with zero gravity mode, a 33-speaker sound system and even adjustable privacy glass to block “99.6 per cent” of light makes it stand out as a luxury van. Mr Xu also told us dedicated Luxeed dealers will handle sales of the LLounge from launch, with the potential for partnerships with other premium brand dealers on the cards. The Stormax, which is more of a mystery in terms of features for now, will follow the LLounge at some stage. Luxeed confirmed on the night its intention as a driver-focused model, with a 3.8-second sprint to 100km/h and a 251km/h top speed. Importantly, the brand’s collaboration with Chinese phone maker Huawei won’t extend to its international models. “For international models, there’s not any relation with Huawei,” Mr Xu told journalists after the presentation. “Not any for the hardware or the software.” Dropping Huawei allows the brand to avoid limitations to connectivity and capability after the phone brand’s hardware was banned from implementation in Australia’s 5G networks in 2018.

Tesla has just announced some serious discounts to its existing stock in Australia as it fends off increasingly tough competition. Existing and demonstrator Model Y SUV examples are available from $61,020 (drive-away), which is $2950 less than before, according to the brand. The Model Y usually starts from $58,900, before on-road costs. This deal makes the Model Y more competitive with its key rivals, the BYD Sealion 7 and Zeekr 7X, which start from $54,990 and $57,900, respectively, both before on-road costs. This news follows Tesla slashing the price of its top grade ‘Performance’ variant from $89,400 to $84,900 in October 2026. Tesla is also offering discounts on its Model 3 sedan with demonstrator and existing examples of the Premium RWD starting from $57,733 (drive-away), equating to $3530 off. The Premium RWD variant usually starts from $54,900 and is a step up from the base Model 3 that now starts from $45,900 (before on-road costs) in Australia. It also means it’s priced more closely to the Premium grade of the BYD Seal that starts from $52,990 (before on-road costs). The Model 3 doesn’t sell as prolifically as its Model Y SUV sibling, but it still managed to shift 5775 units up to September 2026, which is more than the BYD Seal (3808). The Model 3 is available with a single electric motor that produces 190kW and 375Nm or dual motors, producing 343kW and 741Nm. The Model Y also has single or dual electric motor options, producing 220kW/420Nm, 378kW/493Nm, or 461kW/741Nm. The Model Y is the best-selling electric car in the world, and Australia is no exception. It’s shifted 43,386 units up to September 2026. This is more than the BYD Sealion 7 (19,964) and the Zeekr 7X (12,006) combined, but these rivals are rapidly gaining popularity. The mid-size SUV segment is the most hotly contested in the market, and the Model Y is now facing an influx of new and affordable electric SUV rivals in Australia in 2026. The Geely EX5 ($41,990) has seen a similar popularity increase to the Sealion 7 and 7X, while the Lepas L6 ($47,990) has just gone on sale Down Under.

Porsche won’t make the same mistake twice.  With sales of the all-electric Macan tracking down nearly 80 per cent year-to-date, the company has vowed to keep its Cayenne petrol and plug-in hybrid variants as long as possible, deep into the next decade. Speaking at the launch of the all-new Cayenne Electric, Porsche Cars Australia PR and Marketing Director Alexis Truscott acknowledged the challenges that have faced the company’s electric switch but said the brand is looking to ensure buyers have more choice with the bigger SUV. “ Definitely the volume sales and targets for the electric Macan are low but we are hitting our targets and happy with how it's going,” Truscott told CarsGuide. “With the Cayenne, it's very early days. We only had the point of sale two weeks ago. Enquiry's really strong and the customers that have driven already are saying that it's amazing. I think it's probably too early to tell what it's going to look like, but it's positive at the moment. And with the Cayenne it's really about providing the customers with choice. We've got the electric, we've got the hybrid, we've got the combustion engine.” While there has yet to be any public commitment from Porsche to introduce a new-generation of its petrol and hybrid Cayenne variants, insiders have indicated that a major upgrade of the current ‘E3’ Cayenne is likely to arrive in 2027. How extensive this upgrade is remains to be seen, but it will likely need to be significant in order to keep what is already a nine-year-old model relevant for several more years to come. The challenge for Porsche appears to be the relatively slow uptake of electric luxury and performance vehicles, such as its Macan and Taycan. Electric vehicle sales are up dramatically in 2026 as consumers take advantage of new, more-affordable models as well as begin to look for alternatives as fuel prices increase due to the on-going US-Iran War. But the most popular models are, unsurprisingly, the cheaper, more mainstream options like the Tesla Model Y, BYD Sealion 7 and Geely EX5. But Truscott said there are indications that this trend is changing.  “ Particularly in Australia people are much more open to considering electric as an option,” she said.  “Like all the other brands, when there was the unrest in the Middle East, certainly we saw inquiry and order intake for electric Macan increase,” she added. “ I couldn't say that there's empirical evidence to say that's an ongoing industry change or that this is necessarily the ideal time for electric Cayenne. It's probably more that we're very confident that the product is incredible, and that sitting alongside the other options for customers, it's the right thing to do.” Keeping the Cayenne petrol and plug-in hybrid is an understandable move from the brand, despite the impressive credentials of the new electric version. Given the drop in Macan sales, Porsche Australia simply cannot afford another model to slump, especially not the Cayenne. It accounts for almost half of all Porsche sales in 2026 in Australia, almost twice as many as the next most popular model, the 911. Despite its sales plunge, the Macan remains the company’s third best-seller.

Mitsubishi says its new ASX VR-e EV will be aimed more at legacy manufacturers than cheaper Chinese brands, and says it believes buyers will see the value in the brand's legacy and network. That's the word from Tim Clarke, Mitsubishi's Product Strategy Manager, who says the car that is being built in Taiwan in partnership with iPhone manufacturer Foxconn will be banking on his brand's history in Australia to justify what is likely to be a higher price than some rivals. Australian pricing is yet to be confirmed, but for context, the model has been priced in New Zealand, and spans NZ$57,990($47,050) to NZ$72,990($59,220) for the flagship GSR. "We are focused on the value proposition. So what do you get for the money that we think it should be sold for, and making sure that that's competitive amongst the market that it operates in," Clarke says. "And with this product in particular, it doesn't fit well in the small SUV category (in terms of space), even though that's where it will be counted. How do we communicate that, and leverage that, and who will that appeal to? "It's been a really interesting process for us as we've understood the product, as we've learned more about it. "So for the vehicle's content and the overall ownership experience, which we include the 10/10 warranty and the network as well, what's the value of that? "It is a pretty challenging question to put a number on it. But we do that internally and we position it accordingly. And we think versus all the vehicles that you might cross-shop it against in medium SUV, small SUV, passenger – it's a lot of different segments that we arrived at -- the value proposition is where we want it to be." Asked if he believed Australian buyers were willing to pay a premium for legacy and dealership footprint rather than opt for a cheaper newcomer Chinese brand, Mr Clarke replied: "Yeah, definitely. We think it has value for us." The VR-e will launch in Australia this year, and will arrive with four trim levels – LS, Aspire, Exceed and GSR.  All share the same 57.7kWh LFP battery, and all but the GSR get a single, rear-mounted electric motor delivering 171kW and 350Nm. Stepping up to the GSR earns you a second front-mounted motor, which not only ups the grunt to 342kW and 700Nm, but its 3.9-second sprint to 100km/h makes it the fastest production Mitsubishi ever sold in Australia.

It has taken nearly a decade of development, but Tesla has finally done it - they have made the world’s dumbest car. And, in true Tesla style, they have over-delivered on their promise (a decade in the making), making it incredibly dangerous, too.  I’m not mad at the world’s media, including many of my motoring colleagues, for falling for the hype, I’m just disappointed. Because there are some pretty major holes in what Elon Musk and his team at Tesla showed off last week. Of course, that was the point, show off some flashy gimmicks and make everyone pay attention to these wild stunts and not question the ‘how’ and the ‘why’, as well as the major safety issues it raises.  Let’s start with the obvious - it’s not a flying car. As Buzz Lightyear would say, it was “falling with style” rather than taking flight. As for its ‘flip’ over the rest of Tesla’s line-up, to say that it was ‘flying’ would be akin to saying skateboards can fly.  The demonstration, while unquestionably real and not AI and understandably attention-grabbing, was not a true reflection of what Tesla and Musk are promising. Evidence suggests it was basically a full-scale drone, with no human inside and it was seemingly just a simple ladder-frame chassis with a body on top and thrusters and fans underneath. Musk admitted that they didn’t have a human inside the car “to make sure we don't kill anyone!” Which is not particularly reassuring from a brand that has consistently ‘beta tested’ technologies on public roads with owners.  Musk also said: “Now I should say that this is not necessarily a safety optimised car, but it takes the fun meter to 11 out of 10.” I’m all for having fun with cars, but safety must come first. To be candid, most motorists have a hard enough time driving safely on the ground. Adding in the complexity of flight is simply a recipe for disaster. Tesla has said the ‘flying’ elements will be autonomous, but again, based on the autonomous functions already in cars not exactly working with a perfect track record, launching cars into the air with rocket thrusters just seems like a recipe for disaster.  It was able to climb the vertical ramp because it has a series of fans to suck it to the ground. But this is not new technology, it was introduced in Formula 1 in 1978 and more recently the McMurtry Sterling has demonstrated it too can hold itself in place upside down. Of course, no-one is actually going to drive upside down, that’s just more attention-seeking behaviour from Tesla, but it will help produce more downforce for the road and track. Lars Moravy, VP for vehicle engineering at Tesla, told US media that the car can produce so much downforce that: “When we’re accelerating, we can break the laws of tyre physics.”  Hopefully that means they’ll develop newer, stronger, physics-defying tyres. Or else I guess your tyres will be destroyed every time you accelerate too hard.  Tesla’s own disclaimer on the website makes it clear the Rocket version of the Roadster will not be available in all regions and will be “subject to each region's legal requirements and applicable laws”, which means each country will need to decide if it feels kick-flipping cars are something they want on the road.  Musk’s gloating about the car almost sounds like an admission that it will have very limited scope.  “This will be an actual car that's on the roads. I'm not sure it's necessarily legal in all jurisdictions, but there will be such a car that someone can own,” he said.  The Plan B, or perhaps it's actually Plan A, is for a purpose-built test track facility to be built at Tesla’s headquarters in Texas. That would allow those invited to own the Roadster Rocket (because it is ‘invite only’) to have their fun in a private space, leaving the roads for proper cars. Although, once again it demonstrates the cult-like pull of Tesla and its limitation. If the special Texas facility is the only place you can fulfil its full potential, what does that mean for owners who don’t live in Texas? It’s hard to imagine Porsche or Ferrari telling customers they can only drive their expensive supercar in one specific location on Earth. Finally, perhaps the most important element that has been overlooked is that what we saw was not a production car. Nearly a decade after taking US$250,000 deposits for the second generation Roadster, Tesla is still yet to actually fire up the production line. No other car company on the planet, not even Ferrari or Lamborghini, could get away with taking people’s money and not delivering a car for over a decade. Sure, they’ve said it will enter production by 2028, but they’ve said it was going into production in the near-future since 2017. The fact that this car looks nothing like the original 2017 concept is another thing only Tesla can get away with, with its blindly-loyal customers. I do feel like Tesla will eventually put the Roadster into production (although I’d only say I’m 60 per cent confident), but the fact they have focused on the Rocket version and revealed little in the way of details about the Performance and Thrust variants that people will actually be able to buy is yet another red flag. While the attention-seeking unveiling of the Roadster did what it set out to do, making headlines and distracting from the massive delays, ultimately this is a car that answers questions nobody asked. People were happy with the idea of a second-generation Roadster that wasn’t based on a Lotus Elise and felt like it was built in an industrial estate by hand (which is very much what the first generation Roadster felt like). Instead, in what has become his calling card, Musk has pushed Tesla into unchartered territory for the car industry - for better or worse. I hope I’m wrong, but it feels inevitable that we’ll be writing about the first death of a Roadster driver not long after it enters production - whenever that may be. I loved watching Back to the Future II and day-dreaming of a flying car as much as the next kid, but when I grew up I realised the pure impracticality of flying cars and the dangers they create. There’s a reason why getting your pilot’s licence takes a lot longer than getting your driver’s licence.  This feels like the automotive equivalent of Google Glasses or Apple Vision Pro, technology designed by billionaires in Silicon Valley for millionaires in Silicon Valley (or, in this case, Texas) and that makes it as dumb as it is dangerous. But, after all this, if you’re still looking to buy a Tesla Roadster so you can jump over traffic or drive up walls, don’t spend your money yet because I have some magic beans to sell you…