Australia’s best-selling electric cars of the first nine months of 2023

This story covers sales from January to September 2023. Full-year 2023 data is now available – click here to read the full story.

Sales of electric vehicles in Australia have tripled over the first nine months of 2023 compared to the same period last year.

Nearly three in five of the 65,894 electric vehicles reported as sold over the first nine months of 2023 – up 202 per cent on the year prior – have been Teslas, and more than 80 per cent of all electric cars have been manufactured in China.

The Tesla Model Y SUV continues to lead the year-to-date sales race, with 23,457 deliveries reported – completing its first year in showrooms after arriving in Australia in August last year.

It is Australia's best-selling passenger vehicle – including sedans, hatchbacks, SUVs and sports cars – irrespective of propulsion type, ahead of the MG ZS city SUV and Toyota RAV4 mid-size family SUV.

However hybrid vehicles – including the Toyota RAV4 – continue to outsell electric cars as production slowdowns faced by Toyota earlier this year ease, and it ramps up deliveries after a slow start to 2023.

About 69,700 hybrid cars have been reported as sold over the first nine months of the year – representing 8.1 per cent of all new vehicles sold – ahead of 7.6 per cent of the mix for electric vehicles.

The Model Y leads the Tesla Model 3 sedan, which has reported 14,540 sales over the first nine months of this year, up 68 per cent year-on-year – and is the country's best-selling sedan after dethroning the Toyota Camry's 28-year winning streak at the end of last year.

Leading the electric-car sales race – for vehicles without a Tesla badge – is the BYD Atto 3 with 8706 deliveries.

It has reported almost four times the deliveries of its closest rival, the MG ZS EV, which posted 2356 sales – and is about to lose its fourth-place spot to the Volvo XC40 Recharge (2275 sales), which costs twice the price.

MG's other electric vehicle, the new MG 4, has already reported close to 1000 deliveries in its first two months on sale.

In the third quarter of 2023 (July to September) alone, it was Australia's fourth-best-selling electric vehicle, ahead of the Volvo XC40. Only 569 MG ZS EVs were reported as delivered over that period.

About 84 per cent of electric vehicles reported as sold so far this year have been made in China, while electric cars make up 38 per cent of all Chinese-car sales in Australia – compared to 16 per cent for the total market.

The top-selling electric vehicle not built in China was the South Korean-made Kia EV6, with 1147 deliveries reported. The best-selling European-made model was the BMW iX luxury SUV (661 sales).