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EV Quest is the electric vehicle podcast for New Zealand, Australia and beyond. Hosted by Adrian Maidment in New Zealand, and joined regularly by Riz Akhtar from Carloop, EV Quest delivers the latest EV news, reviews and industry insights from across New Zealand, Australia and the global EV market.
Each week you’ll hear conversations about electric cars, charging infrastructure, EV ownership and the future of sustainable mobility.
From interviews with EV industry leaders to reviews of the newest electric vehicles, EV Quest keeps you connected to the fast-changing world of electric transport.
[00:00:00] A record month for EV sales in Australia. How close was Riz in his prediction? Sales data for New Zealand. New models on the way, of course. Uh, what's Riz been driving, and more. Kia ora. I'm Adrian Maidment from EV Quest podcast, and joining me as usual is the founder of Car Loop, Riz Akter. Hello, Riz. Hey, Adrian.
A bit of a blockbuster month. We've got a lot to, lot to get through today. Yes, all I really wanted to find out was how close you were to your prediction on the EV sales for this last month. I might drop in the clip here, or I'll just be too lazy and just go straight into it. So I'll just leave a second and see if I've edited it in Do you wanna do one of those predictions that we can cut back to a week afterwards and see if you're right or wrong?
Uh, yeah. Look, I, I'll do that now. Yep. I think we're gonna-- July we're going to... Oh, sorry, August we're going to get [00:01:00] close to 25% for EV adoption here in Australia. So let's keep an eye out if 25% of the sales are battery electric vehicles in August. But yeah, I think we're expecting big things, Adrian, and I think it's going to be-- The momentum is all there.
Okay. And, um, now the, the sales, EV sales Australia data last month, 24.9% of the entire new vehicle market was electric vehicles. Apparently it's up 171% compared to this time last year. The-- Uh, this is off the which ca- whichcar.com.au information, although lots of people have got it. It-- BEVs outsold petrol and-- All right, I should inflection better.
BEVs outsold petrol and diesels for the first time ever. Yeah. So the real, uh, result was a little bit better than even what I expected, which is, which is I think a good, good news. They sold just over 27,000 battery electric cars, which, you [00:02:00] know, is a bit of a record in terms of for the second half of the year.
Uh, we have had a record sort of month of 32,600 EVs sold in June, although the percentage was 23.3%. So it's a record from a total vehicle and how many were BEVs, which is 24.9%. So almost 25%, so almost one in four cars sold in August was a fully electric passenger car in Australia in August. It's, it's been a really solid month.
Once again, Tesla Model Y was the best-selling passenger car in the country of any powertrain. RAV4 I think got 5,500 odd thousand, where Tesla easily surpassed 6,000 sales for the month for with their Model Y and then even Model 3 had a bit of a bounce back. Uh, and then the usual suspects, you know, the BYD Sea Lion 7, Geely X5, Jaecoo [00:03:00] J5, those sort of vehicles doing really well during the month as well.
Yes. Um, c- c- Do you think in, in the big picture it's like this is sort of a defining moment in the change of the whole EV? I know we sort of talk about changes and cliches quite a bit, but it sort of- it's been sort of cons- consistent, hasn't it, for a few months now. Do you think we're sort of this is how it's gonna continue onwards?
Uh, yeah. So f- you know, for the year we're averaging, well, we're 18.18% of total sales have been a battery electric car, and I think we are trending upwards Pretty much every month since April has been over 20%, uh, of-- So, you know, one in five cars have been fully electric. Now, it's also worth noting, you know, that, uh, a big chunk of Australia sales include light commercial vehicles, which are basically utes, right?
And we don't really have many ute options that are fully electric. We do have the BYD [00:04:00] Shark 6 that sells really well being a plug-in hybrid, and there's a couple more plug-in options coming. But battery electric options, there's a KGM which obviously had a safety recall, or not recall, but they had some marketing issues that we spoke about a couple of episodes ago where they misrepresented the amount of airbags.
But look, that segment is still untapped. So percentage for pa- if we just looked at passenger cars would be very, very high. I'd say probably approaching 40% of all passenger cars sold being fully electric. So yeah, I think we are at that, uh, point where there's so much choice at such good prices and so much advertising going on at the moment, which is great.
It really helps create awareness and, uh, as people are seeing more and more of these stories around the rise of electric cars, they are getting interested. They're test driving them in the showrooms where they do have stock, unlike some legacy brands that were, you [00:05:00] know, 6, 12 months waiting for a RAV4.
And funnily enough, now that's all Toyota's advertising. We are stocked up. Our stock is arriving. It's all coming. Just come, come to our showroom. Please come. But it's the Chinese brands seem to have that, uh, pretty s- pretty big sort of stronghold in the electric and plug-in hybrid space now with huge amount of stock already here.
In the New Zealand market, it was actually a bit of a, bit of a rev- a, a bit of a reversal. EV sales were down. Um, EV sales 9.4% for last month compared to 20.9 the previous month. I'm on the EVDB website. They've got some lovely graphs. Um, petrol was actually up, just good old-fashioned, just straight petrol, up to 25.4%.
So I don't know what happened there. Um, but that's, that was a bit of a different compared to the Australian market, so I don't know what happened there. And also in the, uh, EV sales, uh, BYD Atto 3 was number [00:06:00] one. That was probably with all the run outs on the Atto 3 with a new one coming in I, I'm, I'm guessing.
Yeah. Yeah. And then after that it was your old friend Tesla Model Y. BZ, BZ4X at number three. Look, it appears that Toyota's got obviously that one card that they've got at the moment that they seem to, uh, be selling, selling them out to fleets and others. Um- I have seen a few companies with them, a few businesses with them.
Oh, definitely. I think, I think they've got, you know, huge sort of, uh, capture of that fleet market and, uh, if they can price it right, the fleets should buy them. Yeah. And then there was MG, uh, S5, BYD Sealion 7, and Jaecoo, and the car I recently reviewed, the GM Ora 5. Ooh. So that was a bit of a, bit, little bit different to the Australian market.
I've got some bigger questions for later in the episode, some big questions about the whole market, but I'll leave those to later. One story that did catch my eye was, this was on Auto Talk, headline Affordable EVs Score Five Star ANCAP [00:07:00] Safety Ratings. They've, uh, A- and the ANCAP system got slightly updated.
New criteria were introduced this year And the article talks about the Geely EX2 priced from $32,990 and the Leapmotor BO5 from $43,990. Only the second and third vehicles assessed under ANCAP's new 2026 stages of safety protocols. And they got the five-star rating. So just sort of emphasizing that the lower priced vehicles can still do very well on the ANCAP scores.
I might put a link to that one. It was quite a good one, that one. Link to that. And I guess we'll just go into now Oh, I talked about this car last week, Riz, and I said it wrong. And I'm going to say it wrong again. This is a new Chinese model into Australia and New Zealand. The Lepis? Lepis? Lepis. Not Lepis.
Lepis. [00:08:00] Lepas. Sw- Lep- We- we'll- we'll find out the proper pronunciation once they actually launch I'm never gonna get invited to their launch. But they've got some confirmation of specs, haven't they, Riz? So it's gonna be their first model, the L6. It's gonna be a front-wheel drive, uh, car with about 60-odd kilowatt-hours, I think 65 kilowatt-hour battery pack.
400-plus kilometers of range. Looks like a mid-size SUV, so sort of the size of the popular Geely EX5. It's gonna have a panoramic sunroof. It's gonna have all the other sort of digital tech stuff, the screens that we are aware of that usually come in Chery products, uh, because Lepas is a sub-brand of Chery, of course.
And early sort of specs have been revealed, but more details to follow in October with the official launch of the L6. Everything Electric Show, which is going to be in Sydney in a week or two's time, they will have the Lepas brand on the Chery [00:09:00] stand. So I guess we may learn a few more things at that time as well.
And I can learn how to say the name properly. Yes. That's good news. And what have you been driving this week, Riz, in the What's Riz Been Driving segment? So this week I've been driving the CLA Electric 350. Ooh. And, uh, Mercedes-Benz, that is. Yes, yes. Their new CLA Electric sedan. And I've been very impressed with it so far.
It's a very efficient car. Uh, seems to have high levels of comfort. Infotainment system is relatively good with that Hyperscreen, including a passenger screen as well. That's- But I'm glad ... that's the really big screen going on, isn't it? It is. It's a couple of different screens together. But I was worried before I got the car that I think, you know, it might be distracting to have the passenger screen there.
But they've done a good job in being able to sort of, you don't even really know it's there, because it goes dark and all of those other things. And you can't really watch YouTube or anything on the passenger screen unless you're in park. So [00:10:00] all in all, pretty impressed. Uh, there's a h- good sort of regen braking from the vehicle itself.
It's very smooth. Bings and bongs are basically non-existent, so the software is really, really well tuned for Western markets. Um, and the only thing that's been a bit of a bugbear for me, 'cause I've been doing a fair bit of long-distance driving with it, is it currently doesn't have lane centering. Oh ... on highway cruise control.
Isn't it kind of a, a standard sort of a- I, I would have thought so. So I've seen some reviews sort of say, you know, hey, even base model B1E out of ones- Yeah ... can someti- you know, have so- sort of things in it. So, uh, apparently it's coming over the air, so I look forward to it, but the rest of the car is quite, quite, quite a nice package.
And what's that priced at, Riz? I believe it's priced at around about 90,000 plus on roads. I know it's steep, but we are talking [00:11:00] Mercedes-Benz, the three-pointed star, uh, here, and it's, uh, it's a much, much more of a, a package, this vehicle, compared to, I believe, their previous attempts, such as the EQA and EQB, uh, which I know EQB is ab- has just gone another refresh as well.
So they've dropped the price and, um, there's an upgra- update coming. But yeah, all in all, I'm pretty impressed with the CLA 350 electric 4MATIC. Is it the full name? Uh, there's probably more stuff at the end of it, but, uh I always get confused Um, well, that's, that's good 'cause, yeah, that's good to know.
I'll just, um... It's good to know. I'd love to have a... If Mercedes is listening, I'm keen to have a, have a, have a play in that. Um, over to my, um, becoming more, more busy Japan desk. What's going on there, you might be saying, or m- you might not be saying anything. But, uh, the brand I do quite like to follow is the [00:12:00] Subaru or Subaru, depending how you wanna say it.
That's... They've got a new model coming to New Zealand, and I'll, I'll, I'll go straight into the, um... I like to also do the advertising promotional material for new brands now. So this is f- this is the official website, what they're saying. All new Trailseeker, and they've gone clever with a little... The EV, EV in big letters, EVolution.
I wonder how much that took to work out. Of all-terrain performance. Thought you'd seen everything an an EV could do? Think again. This one kicks open up new, whole new frontier. The Subaru Trailseeker is a sport electric vehicle trademark, SEV, designed at a large all-terrain... Oh, I haven't really read this very well.
Designed as a large all-terrain electric ve- wagon, combining all electric capability with versatile space and elevated confidence, the EVolution of all-terrain performance. Uh, oh, here we go. Here's some specs. Delivering an exhilarating 280 kilowatts and nought to 100, [00:13:00] just 4.5 seconds. At its core, 74.7 kilowatt hour CATL battery, delivering a range of, exclamation mark, oh, a little...
Oh, I have it. 1533 kilometers. Fast charging, 30 minutes. Um, yeah, so I didn't say that very well, but there's two versions available. There's the all-wheel drive and there's a touring version. From, priced from 68,990 plus, well, RRP. Uh, five-star ANCAP rating. Yep. And the base model has 18-inch alloy wheels. Um, so that's on the way.
Um, there's a Toyota version as well. It's not, I mean, it sounds like it's real exclusive, but, you know, Toyota's got their own version of that pretty much as well. So that's coming, Riz. That's the Japan desk covered. That's the Japan desk covered. I would be quite keen to have a look. Oh, also, just another little Japan desk story.
This is, uh, Toyota, Toyota's, uh, the next Lexus EV is being developed in China. This is [00:14:00] the goauto.com.au. Toyota will make an unprecedented shift in its vehicle development strategy by putting a next generation Lexus electric vehicle into production in China before Japan. You heard it here first, but you read it- You did hear it here first
you read it on the goauto.com website a couple of days ago. Any questions from the Jap- from the Japan desk? Uh, look, there's, uh, obviously the Japan desk is, uh, buzzing. I actually just, uh, I need to confirm this, but I saw a headline earlier that, uh, Toyota's boss reckons that, um, if the EV, uh, uptake continues to go the way it's going, millions of people will lose their jobs.
So that's the next amount of fear-mongering that's starting to take place now, where we're no longer saying EVs will never happen. We're no longer saying we're waiting for solid state. We're now saying millions of people will lose their jobs, so. Al- allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. Um, on the, also on the Japan desk, my, my Honda Super One [00:15:00] review is out now as well.
Honda Super One, check that out- Looking forward to that one ... at all leading YouTube stockists.
I quite like that. It was good. It's good. Nice. Right, so that's the Japan desk for another week. Any, oh, international news, Riz. What's our international story for the week? What's happening internationally? Chery launched their Freelander brand with their first model, Freelander 8. Now, it is a plug-in hybrid, but it competes with the Range Rover Sport or Range Rover Electric that was also revealed in the past week or so.
Range Rover starts at 300 plus thousand dollars before on-roads in Australia. How much? 300 plus thousand dollars. Wow. Um, and this F- uh, Freelander, which obviously is inspired and it's in partnership with Jaguar Land Rover, uh, starts at round [00:16:00] about 60,000 Australian dollars in China, and they've raked up 5,000 sales in 12 hours.
Goes to show where the market is heading. Hmm. Cheap. Cheaper. Cheaper. Price, value for money, I should probably say. Value for- Value for money. Value for money ... value for money, that's where it's heading. Yeah, we are still in a p- uh, price, uh, crisis, I believe. In New Zealand we are. We've got, no one's got any money.
Anyway, that's another story. And now I'll go into my new segment, big questions for Riz. I should do some dramatic music. Big questions for Riz. This is more into the, uh, the car loop section of the, uh, of the, of the, of the show. What is the most interesting trend in the EV market that the sales numbers aren't telling us, Riz?
That's one of my big questions for today. Right now, one of the, uh, most important things that are starting to play out, the sales are really good, right? And we're seeing that. But- Most of the companies that are doing quite well in sales have [00:17:00] the ability to deliver even more sales and stock into our market.
So brands like, uh, BYD, Jaecoo, Chery, MG, you name it. Uh, Geely as well, you know, with the EX2 there. That had a pretty big, uh, pretty big month in August with about 1,200 odd sales. That's just the beginning. So if the number of those vehicles that get sold end up on the roads, a lot more people will naturally gravitate towards wanting those vehicles in their own driveways.
So there's a lot of-- There's a bit of saying out there right now that it's this, this whole EV thing is a bit of a blip. Would have been if there was limitations on stock, which they're not. So if you order a vehicle, you're likely to get it in a couple of weeks in most cases, which is pretty good compared to what some of the legacy brands have been offering.
Another sort of quick one to note is some legacy car makers, such as Mazda, [00:18:00] are, uh, falling a little bit behind their initial delivery timelines that they were offering their customers around the new models, the Mazda CX-6e in particular. We'll, we'll see what happens there. You know, they've got a big job ahead of them.
They've gotta try and service their early adopters, but also try and sell that same model in large numbers if they're going to comply with the new vehicle efficiency standards that are fully in place now, where they must sell a certain number of EVs. So you've got sort of Chinese EV brands versus everyone else.
That's gonna have an even bigger role to play, uh, in the coming months, and the brands that I see suffering if you don't get ahead with, with your planning and sort of really understand your competition well, are Japanese brands, and that's going to be quite interesting to see. Hmm, so that's good points.
And may-maybe just one, uh, last question, just looking at it from the other way. What do you th- what do you think the sort of the car companies could be doing a little bit better to [00:19:00] improve, um, their sort of information flow to consumers? I think there's a opportunity to work with dealers, the existing dealer network who are the customer-facing front, I guess, of these car companies.
To work with the dealerships a little bit better, do a bit more of EV and training around charging infrastructure. Uh, particularly if we're putting that many new electric cars on the road, not everyone's gonna be able to charge at home. So what are some of the things that dealers can do to, uh, make it easier for EV drivers in their local area to, you know, give them a bit of a guide around where the local chargers are, how to charge there, or showing them where they can find that information so that their initial experience is, uh, not terrible.
Because if you have a bad experience getting your first sort of couple of charges in, you might be put off by the whole experience of owning that EV. So yeah, I think there's an opportunity for [00:20:00] vehicle brands to work closely with their dealers to support new and existing customers when it comes to, uh, EVs.
Because believe it or not, EVs are still a very new thing for most drivers who are making the switch for the first time. Okay, Riz, those are some very good points, and, um, I think we'll leave it there. And we'll ... You still got your Mercedes? You still got that Mercedes? Yeah, still got the Mercedes. Uh, it goes back in a couple of days' time, and then I have-- I'll be driving my car for a couple of days before, I think, getting into an IM5, because right now that could be one of the, uh, more of a bargains on the market, the IM5, uh, electric sedan.
So we will touch on that on the next episode of EV Quests. And thank you for having me on, and thank you to all the listeners as well for, uh, tuning in. I thought you were gonna go down the road of saying a Tesla killer there for a second, Riz, on that No, no, no, no. 'Cause[00:21:00]
I Okay. We'll leave it at that. We've avoided that, going down that trap, and we'll see you all next week. Thank you very much.