Tesla Model 3 News

Although there are some swings and roundabouts in the equation there’s no denying Tesla’s strong sales performance in the first quarter of 2026.According to Electric Vehicle Council data, local year-on-year sales for the pioneer EV maker are up no less than 40.7 per cent to 7260 registrations to the end of March 2026 versus 5160 for the same period in 2025.And Tesla was knocking on the door of the top 10 sellers for March, its 3485 total for the month within sniping distance of MG in tenth (at 4218 units).But there’s a distinctly different story for the two models the brand currently offers in Australia, with the long-serving Model 3 sedan down 33.4 per cent for the first three months (1363 units vs 2046) and the Model Y medium SUV up a whopping 89.4 per cent (5897 units vs 3114).While steep fuel price rises have significantly lifted overall EV sales, Tesla’s turnaround marks a solid comeback from a less than stellar 2025, during which the brand’s local sales fell by just under a quarter compared to 2024 (28,856 units vs 38,347).And it’s worth noting that 2024 Tesla figure was itself down just under 17 per cent from 2023’s 46,120 unit total. Tellingly, established Model 3 competitors are down from their relatively modest base sales; the BMW i4 20.4 per cent behind for the first quarter (246 vs 309) and the Hyundai Ioniq 6 down 61 per cent (17 vs 44).But the big clue to the Model 3’s decline comes in the shape of the BYD Seal, up a staggering 209.3 per cent (934 vs 302) with the Polestar 2 13 per cent ahead (139 vs 123).Alternately, several of the Model Y’s key rivals declined in Q1 with the Hyundai Ioniq 5 down 54.5 per cent (115 vs 253) and the Kia EV5 1.6 per cent behind (1148 vs 1167).But others (operating from much smaller bases) have eclipsed even the Model Y, including the Cupra Tavascan up 366.7 per cent (112 vs 24), Skoda Enyaq up 129.1 per cent (126 vs 55), Subaru Solterra up 246.5 per cent (149 vs 43) and Toyota bZ4X up 300 per cent (840 vs 210) as well as the VW ID.4 up 243 per cent (429 vs 125) and ID.5, 101.4 per cent ahead (143 vs 71).With the current shipping blockade in the Strait of Hormuz further unsettling global oil supply and impacting local fuel prices, it will be interesting to track what is set to be Tesla’s strengthening performance as the year progresses. CarsGuide contacted Tesla Australia for comment on the brand’s sales performance.

Electric vehicle sales are booming in a way they never have before in Australia. Buyer options have increased significantly in 2026, with more affordable choices also appearing more regularly. There were 15839 electric vehicle sales for March in 2026, up from 8385 compared to this time last year, representing a near 89 per cent year-on-year growth. Established SUV players such as the Tesla Model Y lead the way with 2818 sales, along with the BYD Sealion 7 (1970). There are also some new competitors climbing up the sales charts, such as the Zeekr 7X performance SUV, which managed 679 registrations for March, having launched late last year.The Tesla Model 3 sedan (667) continues to be present among the top sellers despite its prolonged downturn.The SUV trend continues as Geely’s EX5 (606) and the Kia EV5 (587) are next on the list, before BYD’s presence resumes with the Atto 2 small SUV (572). Another new EV making an early impression is the Jaecoo J5, which launched at the start of this year and achieved 569 sales last month. The BYD Atto 1 (488) and Atto 2 (466) also make the list along with the Kia EV3 (461). Hatchbacks are proving popular amongst EV buyers as well. The MG4 (451) remains among the strongest selling EVs, as does the BYD Dolphin (373). The Toyota bZ4X is also experiencing an upturn to 447 sales for March and BYD is represented again with its Seal sedan (337) to round out the top 15. Top selling electric cars Australia March 2026

Electric vehicle sales are booming in Australia as international and domestic factors contribute to substantial EV uptake. The Electric Vehicle Council (EVC) data for the first quarter of 2026 reveals EV sales are up 40 per cent compared to this time last year. In the first quarter of this year, Tesla and Polestar have sold nearly 8000 units between them, which is also a sizable increase on 2025 numbers. This number is likely to be even higher, with only Tesla and Polestar reporting to the EVC, meaning much of the ever-increasing range of electric cars are not part of this latest data set. Official data for April from VFACTS will be released next week.This includes strong selling EV models such as the Zeekr 7X, which has had a flying start to life in Australia, along with many electric BYD models. Tesla accumulated 3485 sales for March 2026, more than 600 extra units compared to March 2025. The Model Y SUV continues to be the brand’s most popular model, with 2818 units shifted in March 2026, more than 1000 up on the same time last year. Tesla will soon introduce a six-seater version of its best-seller called the Model Y L, which will arrive in the coming weeks. The Model 3 sedan has not had the same positive sales result as its SUV sibling, with a 40 per cent drop compared to the same period last year. Polestar has also not experienced the same sales increase, with its Polestar 2 and Polestar 3 experiencing sharp drop-offs, while Polestar 4 sales improved slightly. This latest data comes at a time when rising fuel prices are sending demand for EVs skyrocketing.EVC Chief Executive Julie Delvecchio said this latest data indicates an acceleration of the EV shift for Australia. “Volatile global oil markets are changing the conversation. Australians aren't asking whether EVs are the future anymore. They're asking which one they can get their hands on, and when,” Delvecchio said. This electric sale acceleration is also being brought on by the government's National Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) which is placing pressure on brands to electrify their line-ups or face fines. Major brands have already started hiking prices on petrol units, while introducing new EV models to offset the potential impacts of the emissions-based scheme.

Elon Musk’s Grok artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot assistant is officially rolling out to Tesla vehicles in Australia in a staggered series of over-the-air software updates over the coming days.

A new player has joined the all-electric passenger car game, with the Mazda 6e officially priced in Australia ahead of its impending launch. Now is a good time to look at how this new competitor shapes up to its primary rivals in the BYD Seal, Polestar 2 and Tesla Model 3. All four of these cars take on a sedan-style body shape (although some have a hatch tailgate), all are built in China, and all created some fanfare when they arrived in Australia. The established three players have had a few years to settle in, while Mazda’s EV will need to hit the ground running as the first of the brand’s renewed electric push, and a major part of its strategy to reduce its emissions as one of the manufacturers most exposed to Australia's new emissions laws.Here is how the 6e compares to those it will need to take down if it is to be a success. The 6e, which is a platform-share with the China-market Deepal L07, has been priced competitively.It is virtually the same price as the BYD seal, while coming in at roughly $5000 cheaper than the Model 3 and more than $10000 cheaper than the Polestar 2. As you walk up the line-up for these cars the 6e’s up-spec model costs an additional $3000, which gets you leather and synthetic suede seats, a leather steering wheel, and a synthetic suede interior. The other trio’s pricing for higher trim models extends into the $60,000s, $70,000s and even $80,000 range for the Model 3, but with that comes much more gear, larger batteries and the addition of all-wheel drive. The Mazda is the longest out of all its competitors, being closer in size to a large sedan rather than a mid-sizer.When it comes to power, the 6e lines up pretty closely to the rest of the pack of entry-level rivals, but it has the least grunt out of all of them.The Mazda wins out on driving range, with its bigger battery offering 560km, which is more than the Tesla and significantly more than the Seal and Polestar 2, which have ranges in the 400km bracket.There is not much in it on the charging front, but the 6e’s 10-80 per cent changing time takes the title on official numbers. All four cars have single rear-mounted motors. Unlike the 6e, the Seal, Polestar 2 and Model 3 all have options further up the scale for all-wheel drive. The 6e boasts an impressive list of standard features, which includes a 14.6-inch central touchscreen and 10.2-inch digital driver display, as well as synthetic leather seats, which are heated and ventilated in the front. The Seal’s touchscreen is bigger than the Mazda’s, and shares many of the same features, which in part explains the similar pricing of the pair. It does only have 18-inch wheels as standard like the Model 3 compared to the BYD Seal and Polestar 19-inches. If you’re keen to pump your tunes, the Mazda 6e’s has the biggest audio system out of its rivals, with its 14 speaker Sony system. Wireless phone charging, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto is standard on the 6e and the Seal, but the Polestar 2 only has a wired connection as standard, while the Model 3 does not have any such connectivity. Standard safety features for each car listed below:The Mazda 6e has not been crash tested yet, but its rivals have all achieved five-star ANCAP ratings.All models have the standard safety gear you would expect from modern cars, with a high number of airbags and advanced driving assistance systems.The Mazda 6e seems priced just about right to ensure buyers give it some serious consideration in the segment. In an age where driving range remains the key question of any EV, sitting at the top of the pile means it is a compelling proposition. It will have a fight on its hands to eat into the sales of competitors which have been around for much longer than it and boast similar specifications and trim. Time will tell whether the 6e will have the desired impact Mazda needs it to have as it paves the way for future EVs from the brand. 

Tesla is Australia’s most popular electric vehicle (EV) brand… but for how much longer?

Electric vehicles are so powerful now that they have more horsepower than Formula 1 racecars. Why do they have so much power? How is this even legal? And where do I sign up? High-powered cars used to either be the exotic with owners who had paid big dollars for big output or the affordable modified ones nurtured by enthusiasts handy with spanners. Both groups have copped their fair share of noise from both politicians, regulators and the community for possessing their overpowered beasts.In the past five years Australia has been inundated with electric cars with horsepower so huge that it makes the output of even the most exotic or modified car seem cute. Yet they haven’t been met with the same backlash received by their loud combustion cousins.You can probably blame Tesla for setting the power standard so high that it became the selling point for almost all electric vehicles. Tesla found the way to sell electric cars was to make them quick and sexy. If you paid more you could unlock software that made your Tesla faster — they named it Ludicrous mode and Plaid mode. So you could have a ridiculously fast car now without the super car price or the mechanical desire to do it yourself.Tesla’s Model 3 Performance has 461kW and a 0-100km/h time of 3.1 seconds. And it’s a regular car you’d walk past in a supermarket car park without even noticing.Other brands paid close attention and copied, and now family favourite brands have their own super powered EVs.Kia’s EV6 GT has 485kW and has a 0-100km/h time of 3.5 seconds, Hyundai has the 478kW Ioniq 5 N and can reach 100km/h in 3.4 seconds. Newer brands are pushing those limits even further with the coming Polestar 5 four door sedan packing 650kW.And these aren’t even really considered high performance or exotic by EV standards.Just to put that in perspective the most powerful HSV GTS with a 6.2-litre supercharged V8 made 430kW when Holden stopped manufacturing in Australia 10 years ago.If you want exotic or high performance in an EV then look no further than Porsche’s Cayenne Turbo Electric, a large luxury family SUV with 850kW. If that means nothing to you, then look at it this way, Formula 1 cars in the 2026 Championship produce 750kW.So why do electric cars have so much power? It’s easy for electric motors to produce enormous power and torque compared to petrol and diesel counterparts. In its simplest terms a motor consists of a magnetic field within a cylinder that contains a rotor, which when supplied with an electric current spins creating mechanical energy.You can place an electric motor on a car’s axle and the drive is direct and acceleration instantaneous because there’s no gearing required as revs increase. Think of an electric drill, you pull the trigger and its spinning instantly. Same with the motor in an electric car, and that’s why acceleration can be so rapid in even a garden variety model.This segues us to electric hypercars with outputs that are almost unfathomable. Yangwang is BYD’s high-performance luxury brand and its U9 has four electric motors each making 550kW, which gives the thing a 0-100km/h time of less than 2.4 seconds. That’s painfully quick, I mean it takes 2.4 seconds to read this sentence.And at 100km/h you are covering 28 metres per second — a basketball court a second.So how is this even legal? Well currently in Australia there are no restrictions on the power output of a vehicle, just restrictions on who can drive them, as in those on their P-plates. New drivers are restricted to vehicles that don’t exceed a power-to-weight ratio.And that raises a good point about power-to-weight ratios because EVs are heavy due to their dense batteries and that’s also another reason why the higher output is required. Still with how easy it is for a motor to make big power, overcoming the weight is easy.But that weight does cause problems when it comes to dynamic ability, and while many regular EVs have high outputs, their handling is affected. The car may be small, but it has the weight of a large SUV.So while I love the quick acceleration unless it’s a high performance EV such as the Cayenne it’s only going to be fun in a straight line and I’m here for it although that novelty wears off quicker than the new car smell.There are benefits to good acceleration that don’t involve showing off. Being able to move quickly and decisively can be good for intersections without traffic lights, merging on motorways and overtaking, all without breaking the speed limit of course. The all-wheel drive offered by dual motor EVs often mean excellent traction for even more stability.That said, being able to move quickly doesn't leave much time to make decisions such as a braking to avoid a collision with the car in front or stopping for a pedestrian that's stepped out onto the road.Until now the ever increasing power of EVs feels like it's gone unnoticed, but it's not hard to imagine a time in the future when regulators put limits on how much power an EV can make. And that, probably a very good thing.

​​Tesla has today announced a name change for its Model 3 and Model Y in Australia, introducing the "Premium" moniker, while also confirming the cheaper stripped-back Standard models offered overseas would not be coming to Australia.

Reports have emerged that Elon Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX is considering a merger with one of the billionaire’s other major companies ahead of going public on the stock market.A tie-up between SpaceX and one of xAI or Tesla, all headed up by the contentious billionaire, is on the cards according to Reuters, with SpaceX expected to hit the stock market valued at as much as US$1.5t (A$2.16t).While reports suggest insiders are leaning towards a merger between SpaceX and xAI, both being private companies while Tesla is public, there’s talk that Tesla will eventually join the mega-company that is being touted as ‘Elon Inc’.Tesla being more closely associated with Musk’s other brands isn't out of the ordinary, the allegedly forthcoming Tesla Roadster has been touted as a “Tesla/SpaceX collab” according to Musk, while Tesla and SpaceX do business in the battery space for the rocket company’s storage needs.Tesla also ‘loaned’ a series of employees to Twitter (now X) to help with coding shortly after the former Trump ally bought the social media network.Merging Tesla and SpaceX presents more complexities than xAI and SpaceX, according to experts Reuters spoke to. Aside from the public/private company factor, Tesla investors might see the merger as “dilutive” to their focus on Tesla.“Combining all or part of his empire into Tesla would involve a number of complexities,” John Streur told Reuters. Streur is a Senior Managing Partner at Boston Common Asset Management. “If the valuations are extremely high it will be viewed as dilutive to Tesla shareholders.”While it’s all up in the air at the moment for Tesla, the effects it might have on the brand's products can be seen in the aforementioned ways the companies already work together - more AI integration into Tesla’s cars including autonomous features, plus the potential for more experimentation with SpaceX contributions to the brand’s features.The future of Tesla as a car brand is generally changing slowly already, with Musk touting Tesla’s robots and discontinuing the Model X SUV and Model S sedan, the latter being instrumental early in Tesla’s rise to EV dominance.It was announced in late January that the factory in California where the Model S and X were built would be converted into a production line for Tesla's Optimus robots.The loss of S and X won’t greatly impact the brand’s bottom line, though, as its Model 3 and Model Y reportedly accounted for 97 per cent of the brand’s 2025 global sales.

It’s happening. The first electric vehicles with 1000km of driving range are starting to hatch.What seemed like an out-of-reach fantasy just a few years ago has become reality with auto manufacturers now beginning to launch their next-gen EVs which can out-drive the range of combustion cars. So which brands are doing it and how far can these electric long haulers really go? In January, Chinese carmaker Chery announced that this year it would launch the Exeed Liefeng - one of the world’s first production models with a solid state battery - which would give the electric vehicle a range of 1500km.Solid state has long been the holy grail form of batteries and for the past five years car manufacturers have been on a crusade to find how to cost-effectively use the technology on a large scale for EVs. Chery appears to be one of the first to make it there, but you can bet the rest will follow quickly. Currently the longest-hauling electric vehicles in Australia are the Polestar 3 Long Range Single Motor with its 706km range and Tesla’s Model 3 Long Range AWD with 629km. Both use the tried-and-tested lithium ion batteries which have been the go-to for the industry for decades but it appears the limits are being reached.China’s rising star brand Xiaomi is even pushing the lithium ion limits further however, announcing this week that it was taking orders for its new SU7 sedan with a 902km (CLTC) range. While the SU7 uses an 101.7kWh lithium ion battery, the vehicle's new silicon carbide platform in 752V and 897V forms, as well as its aerodynamic performance, has returned improved efficiency.  CLTC is the China Light Duty Vehicle Test Cycle which isn’t as strict as the Worldwide Harmonised Light Duty Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP). So 902km equates to about 750km in the real-world.The 1500km range of Chery’s  Exeed Liefeng is likely to be calculated using the CLTC criteria, too, but that is still equal to 1230km WLPT and that’s beyond remarkable, even compared to combustion engines.The distance you can drive on a full tank of petrol depends on the kind of engine you have, the size of the fuel tank, and the type of driving you do.It’s pretty obvious but big engines use more fuel, so do high-performance engines which prioritise output, and stop-start traffic on urban roads uses more than fast moving motorways. New engines are super fuel efficient these days compared to what they were 20 or even 10 years ago and hybridisation with electric motors in all their forms can significantly reduce fuel consumption. In my own testing, large mid-sized SUVs with four-cylinder petrol engines get no more than about 700km from a 60L tank, with the average being about 500km with the mainly urban driving I do. So some electric vehicles you can buy right now have the same range as the equivalent petrol cars. The benefit of petrol though is clearly the speed at which you can refuel and the accessibility with up to 8000 service stations each with multiple pumps in Australia.Charging times have improved greatly but 30 minutes is about average to charge from 10-80 percent with a 150kW DC charger. In Australia there are only about 550 chargers capable of 100kW or more.Solid state batteries not only offer great ranges but super quick charging - 10-80 per cent in about five minutes. It's still slower than filling a 60L tank with petrol, but not much slower.What about hybrids? Hybrids add a lot more range, especially the new generation of "super hybrids" which are the plug-in kind equipped with larger batteries and clever management systems which can do what was unthinkable a few years ago.My current long-term test car is a Chery Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid which has a 18.4kWh battery and a 60-litre petrol tank. A 1.5-litre four cylinder petrol engine and an electric motor drive the front wheels.According to Chery the combined range of the Tiggo Super Hybrid is 1200km with fuel consumption as low as 1.3L/100km.In my first month with the Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid I drove 869km before I needed to refuel, but I did charge it during that time, occasionally. Still, that’s outstanding. If I was to charge it regularly then the 1200km seems absolutely attainable. But regularly means every two to three days, otherwise fuel consumption increases dramatically. That’s inconvenient to say the least if you don’t have a home wall unit.It seems inevitable electric will take the place of petrol and solid state batteries will mean 1000km from a full charge. Ultimately this could mean petrol becomes the new source of range anxiety, as service stations swap fuel pumps for chargers, making 500km on a single tank seem concerning.Before you hop in the comments, understand I’m by no means an EV fan girl. I love the drama that comes with petrol. My own car has a 5.8-litre V8 that I rebuilt myself.However, I truly think most people don’t care what powers their car and if solid state batteries only take a few minutes to charge and you only need to do it once a month then petrol is a goner.