December 2025 New BEV Sales Report Australia: BYD and Tesla featured

Music playing...

Hello, gents. Hello, ladies. Hello, everyone. Hello, children. And welcome to 2026. Happy

New Year, everyone. And good to see you on the chat there. Hope you've all had a prosperous

welcome or entry into the new year. Hope you're staying cool as well. It is quite

warm here in Sydney, where I am. And hopefully you have got some sort of cooling system or

fan on, at least. It is very warm outside where I am. Let's say hello to our guests. Our

regular guest is always hello to Riz. Hello, Riz. How are you going?

Hey, Tom. Good to be on. I'm joining from the Bonza Lounge here in Bali. It's fairly

warm. A bit balmy here, but good to be on and look forward to tonight's show in 2026.

I know. Can't believe it, right? First show of 2026. So good. Good to be back. And also our

other co-host for 2026. Hello, Roland. Nice to see you.

Hello, Tom. Hello, Riz. Happy 2026.

Indeed. Happy new year to you as well. Well, we've got lots of chat about as always on the show. But

before we do that, let's say thank you to our sponsors as always. Thank you to Power Shop,

$100 credits for new customers. Check out terms and conditions in the video description.

Evie Day and Evie Night Plans. And thank you to Carloop as well, like you, Riz, and the

team from Carloop. Data to empower Australia's Evie revolution. Let's say hello to our regular

viewers as always. Hello to Jeanette. Hello there. Yes, it is very warm at the moment

down south of Australia. Yes. Hello, Gaffa. Nice to see you as well. Very hot indeed.

Hello, Jean. Hello. It's only day or hello for the burbs. Yes, summer as well. Well,

into full swing at the moment. Very hot. Hello, Wayne. Nice to see you. Hello, Sir Necro. Indeed.

I think we've still got the music on. Let's just pause that for a sec.

And hello also to Scott. Happy new year to you as well. And congratulations to

Cy Provesh, picked up his model, sorry, his X-Pen G6 long range today. Congratulations.

Love the drive home. Well done.

And yes, no amber spikes today. Just a good export price indeed. And yes, Sander. Yes, Roland is our

officially our co-host for 2026. And make sure you check out the Zapchannel as well,

for which Roland of course runs. And hello to Andrew as well indeed.

All right, gents. Let's start with this one. So we've always got Hollywood Rizz with us,

of course. And no better way to start 2026 than this Rizz on our national broadcast at the ABC.

Run us through this one. Now, I'll start with full disclosure. How can they do this to me?

They put me right in the middle of a ring of two of the industry heavy weights, Tesla and BYD.

And they wanted to know, has BYD really overtaken Tesla in terms of EV sales in 2025? And yes,

they have. But I tried to stabilize things a bit. It's not all things that are not really

going well for Tesla as a brand, because they're focusing on different things. So anyway,

ABC reached out on Saturday morning and in less than an hour's time, they wanted me to be on

talking live to their morning show host, Fosya, about what's going on with BYD

overtaking Tesla in terms of EV sales. And yeah, it was just a quick chat and

didn't know they were going to take snippets out of it and put it on the news.

Rizz, I can't think of anyone better than to represent the EV industry than yourself. So

no, it's good. Yeah, you know, that's all we need an hour's notice, right? That's all we need in

this industry. It moves quickly. My runners are wrong. I had to sprint back, get ready,

find myself a BYD to be in so that we could actually set the stage for what this interview

was about. Well, let's let's walk through this topic that you just touched on BYD versus Tesla

has BYD actually surpassed Tesla in car sales for 2025?

Battery electric, yes. They sold about 2.2 million battery electric cars. And then the rest were,

of course, FEVs. And yeah, from from all accounts, of course, BYD selling cars that are very

different price point, majority of their cars are under the BYD brand. And where Tesla's, of

course, most of their vehicles are even in Australia above sort of $50,000. But of course,

different scale and BYD has very high sort of global ambitions. Out of the full point,

I think 6 million cars BYD sold over a million of them or nearly a million of them were in

export markets. That's huge growth. What about in Australia? Has has BYD overtaken Tesla in our

market? Yes, for cars. So they sold just over 52,000 cars in 2025. But not really on the battery

electric vehicle front. So from memory, I think BYD sold about 25 or 26,000 electric cars. And

the rest of them were FEVs. That's your shark, sea lion six. And I think they're the only two models

that they were selling that were plug-in hybrids. But yeah, moving forward, we will see what happens.

I suspect 2026 they will, their BEVs alone will outsell a lot of Tesla's products in general.

Because, you know, they've just launched Australia's cheapest at a one delivery

start in December. We're going to touch on that a bit later on. And then Ado2 as well,

they had a bumper month and we'll touch on that in December. So I think they've set the stage for

what they really want to achieve in 2026. Yeah, I think I tend to agree with you,

Riz, looking to our crystal wall, I think it's a matter of time. The BEVs will just take over.

They've just got a lot of product across different segments, whereas Tesla obviously

has only got Model 3, Model Y in Australia. So yeah, I think it's only a matter of time.

I think, honestly, BYD's ambitions are beyond Tesla. I think Tesla's like just the first step

and then it's Toyota. I'll take, but I think that's kind of where they're headed.

Yeah, I'm very curious to see how they go in 2026. Well, congratulations, Riz. I might have to

call you ABC Riz from now on, as Scott has just mentioned there. It's not only a matter of time.

Before GMZ Riz or anything, Paparazzi, whoever want to get in touch, they can

go on the days of Hollywood Riz. Buz Riz or Riz feed.

Very good. Well, congratulations. Hold on. Thanks. All right. Speaking of car sales,

let's pop this slide on again. Riz runs us through the sales of 2025,000 EVs. That's

great. Great to hear that number for last year, which is good. And December was a good month as

well. It looks like 10,000 EVs. Is that 10% or not quite? No, actually, for December, I think,

yeah, December we got there. But the rest of the year, I think was sort of, actually, no,

maybe we didn't. 8. Something percent, I think we got for the whole year. 8.5, as it says.

That's including the 2000 XPengs that I'm counting in that, which we know it's roughly there,

but they're not reported with V-Facts. December was a very, very cool from an interesting month,

because if we look at the top five, it's BYD's onslaught. And you've got Tesla sort of sandwiched

in the middle. C-Line 7, 2,546 sales. Tesla Model Y, just shy of 2000. Model 3, 587. It seems to have

lost its shine a little bit. I'm wondering if it's to do with deliveries or stock, but I would

assume the stock's okay on the Model 3. Maybe just everybody wants an SUV. And then the Addo 2,

which has had its, I guess, second month officially selling vehicles in the country. And

they did, yeah, over 500 sales. And then BYD Seal as well, which has been, yeah, really,

really good to see there. So, yeah, I mean, I think people have seen your videos, Tom. They

know Blue Calipers gets themselves, and hence BYD Seal still kicking some goals. So, all in all,

I think BYD alone sold 400-1000 cars, electric cars in December, if you combine sort of all

the sales that they've had. They did have a few cashback offers. I think the C-Line 7 was also

getting up to $4000 of cashback for at least half, first half of December. So, if you purchased a

vehicle that was in stock, the premium version, I think, which is the entry level one at the moment

that was getting $4000 cashback, it's a lot of, it's huge discounting for the type of car it is.

I've just been in one over the Christmas break, and I've really, really liked enough senior

reviews as well, Tom. I think it's a good car, and I can see why a lot of people are buying

it so. Expect to see thousands more on our roads in 2026 for the C-Line 7. The Model Y,

good month, but I think maybe the, you know, they've got the performance version that's just been

sort of started deliveries in December. I don't think that's really the version a lot of people

are going for. The mass market is still looking at the rear-wheel drive in the long range.

And then the Model 3, I guess, we'll see what January holds, but we're expecting a quiet month

for Tesla in January. Yeah, anecdotally, I've seen a lot of BYD C-Line 7s in my neighborhood,

and just around the North Shore, which is good. Obviously, those discounts have certainly filtered

through, and that is a bumper month for BYD, 2500 C-Line 7s. Congratulations to BYD.

And good to see the Auto 2 as well, as you said, it is 531 sales. So, yeah,

looking forward to seeing those on the road. And wouldn't mind testing one of those as well

in Sydney, just driving that around. Should it be a good little car to have?

I saw just quickly, I saw something today, and maybe our audience can verify this, but

one of the posts from BYD said that BYD C-Line 7 in December was the fourth best-selling car in

the country. Now, I suspect that's after your Ford Ranger, Toyota Raffle, Toyota Hilux, and then I think

the fourth is the C-Line 7, which over 2500 sales, that's pretty good. And all of those cars

that we saw at the theme parks, I think they're, we're good to see a before and after

to see what's really going on. But yeah, theme parks may be open, and there won't be,

there won't be any C-Line. Yeah, that's right. We don't need jambrew anymore.

No, that's quite impressive. Fourth biggest selling vehicle for last month is actually

no mean feat, that's for sure. I'm curious about Zika 7x. I guess a lot of the pre-orders

that we were promised haven't quite filtered through it or haven't arrived in the country.

We haven't been prepared yet. What's the deal there?

My understanding is, and Roland might have, you know, a few things to add in there as well,

but my understanding is that people that are placing an order for a new Zika 7x are being told

February-March, so I suspect that there's stuff coming in.

Okay, interesting. There's still lots of people asking questions on when they put it on,

how long has it taken, and yeah, a lot of people have said in a couple of months' time.

Okay, yeah. Maybe the boat's taken Christmas break.

You don't want to sort of float into Chinese New Year, right? In mid-February,

things will slow down as well in Feb from China. So yeah, it's kind of obviously there,

Christmas, they sort of slow down. But yeah, I've seen a few as well, sort of new 7xs floating

around too in Sydney, so that's good. Two more points, Tom. I have seen, based on what you said,

only just made me think about it too, I've seen a lot of C-Line 7s over the past week actually,

now that you mention it. Yep, agreed. Yeah, great looking car and good value as well,

as we said. Yeah, agreed. But if you spot the 183, BZ 4xs. I saw that, yes.

Bringing up the top 10 there. Fleets. I think people sometimes under-appreciate how much Toyota

actually discounts their vehicles when they want to get rid of them. So in generally speaking,

if you're just the fleet customer of any sort, you could be a member of an association,

like home builders association. You could easily get 10% off the price of a retail price of a car,

just because you're a member of that association. So Toyota has very, very strong ways they can sort

of push vehicles out to masses. I think Toyota ended up selling 240,000 cars in Australia in

2025. And yeah, I mean, if they discount stuff pretty heavily in between that, I don't think it

really matters to them. So I've heard some quite aggressive pricing on some of the BZ 4xs

before this new one that's about to come out. Yeah, that's their phenomenal numbers. Obviously,

Toyota's the giant of the industry quarter of the sales from 2025. But look, if nothing

else existed in the market in terms of the Chinese offerings and even Tesla, then the BZ

4x would be a great car. But it's just relative, right? So there are a lot of offerings now

compared to the BZ 4x. But I guess people buy based on brand and Toyota is still a very reliable

brand and obviously massive footprint in the country. So that's what you're buying into,

right? So yeah, that's fine. Kia EV5 still holding up, which is good. Still a good car.

That's good. But yeah, BYD Tesla, they're just taking the line share of this sales from December.

EV5 is about to get some competition from its brother, Hyundai, with the Elexio announced this

week. It's supposed to be similar sort of size. When the pre-sales started in China in

October, it was priced at around just under $30,000 Australian dollars. And the only variant that

we're getting to start with, the Elexio Elite, it's priced from $59,990 drive away. Given the

cars we're talking about on this list, that is a lot of money. I don't know if Hyundai

aims to sell any of them. We'll see. We'll see. I'm sure there'll be a media day maybe,

hopefully this year. Hopefully, I think so. Yeah, that'd be good. I just want to thank

Gaffer for five LF memberships. Thank you very much. And we've got, yes, Wayne's confirming

what Riz said, BYD fourth selling, best selling brand in December also. That's huge.

It's only now considering how many BYDs I'm seeing in Canberra and around regional

New South Wales. I think BYD is going to have a big year. I think so too. I agree with you.

Only big things to come for them.

Sander asks, Riz, are there sell numbers based on orders taken or vehicles delivered? Riz,

I think it's delivered, isn't it? It is, Jen. It's delivered nowadays. It used to be just a

lot of questionable reporting used to happen in this industry, but they've tried to

make it a bit more streamlined. So it's a bit more accurate.

Mm-hmm. Justin Hong saying, C-Line 7 losing their uniqueness, yes, being

everywhere now. It's kind of like the new Model Y, isn't it? It's kind of everywhere,

which is a good thing. It's good to see more EVs obviously on the road.

John's saying, lots of good deals on BZ4Xs, on car sales. Demo models for around 45K. That's

not bad. Wow. Yep. Yeah, EVAs asks, yeah, correct. Deep Power Elite Motor,

obviously Xperia, which Riz touched on not reporting. What's the deal? Are they just further down the

list? They are, unfortunately, quite a bit further down the list. I think all, well,

I think all four models, so Deep Power has got the SO7 and the E07,

and the Leap Motor has the C10 and the B10. I think all four of them were sort of under

50 units. Mm-hmm. Wow. Steven's saying, quite a few BYDs out in western New South Wales. That's

great. I guess having a BYD in double and orange helps, of course. Absolutely. Having a footprint

anywhere helps. Local sales, for sure. Yes, and Xander says, I hope to see other one on the

list too. Yeah, absolutely. We'd love to see the seagull make that list. Exactly. So it

didn't make the list, but they did deliver about, I don't know whether this number was selected,

specifically for the month because of good luck. 88 were sold in December,

basically the first month giving it good luck for the following year, which is 2026 now,

and I think they're going to have a pretty big month. As soon as I saw something,

I think it was on Facebook that someone had received theirs last week. I went out to

the local dealer, and yeah, they were doing test drives already. So yeah, it's good to see,

and I think January onwards, there's going to be a few big months of the add-on one.

Yep. Cannot wait to zip that around Sydney and find the parking spots I can't normally fit in. So

yep, BYD, if you're listening, get those press cars up to us, please.

Yeah, and back to the 88 thing. Nothing is ever coincidental when it comes to

good fortune, Riz. You know that, and Robin. They'll stop the orders to go,

we're giving you 88 only, and that's it, you're not getting any more. And actually,

I've jumped on Facebook, as you mentioned that, Riz, because I thought I remember seeing it.

There's a post on there, and I'll put it up on X for everyone to see. Someone snapped the photo

at the port, there's a bunch of Ato ones and twos sitting there. So that's all of the 89

and onwards. Yeah, that's right. 89 onwards. The misfortune at once until it gets to 888.

Oh, too funny. Okay, let's push on. Thank you, Riz, for that. Let's show you guys this one. So

this is from Daz, one of our viewers. So yes, is this the fastest Zika 7x charge in Australia?

He achieved 378 kilowatt on the 400 kilowatt ab charge charger at Eastern Creek Disarvo, which

is the fastest EV charger in Australia, which I've also tested myself personally.

He got from 10 to 80 in 16 minutes, which is not bad. But he did reach 378, which is pretty

quick, which is the fastest I've certainly seen for sure. So that's good. Good to see

Zika's charging as promised. Looking good there, Daz. Nice color as well. That's probably the one

I would have chosen, the gray. Personally, you can see 380 on the screen there too. So well done.

Super quick. Just enough for a toilet break, quick snack, maybe, and walk back to the car.

You'd be done. Very good. Unless you've got kids. Then you're moving your car.

That's too quick. And obviously, these are for trucks, these drive-throughs. But still,

it's good if you've got a trailer or something. You can just pull through like that. These charges.

I did test the other side, the eastbound on the M4 on the other side for Ampo with the

GAC Ion V today. So yeah. And that's got a fast charging rate, 180 kilowatt as promised on the

spec sheet. And not bad. It got pretty close to that actually at 40% standard charge. So

good to see that car charging quickly. Just adding something there, Tom. I mean,

that's a car. It's like, what does it start at 42,500 plus on roads or something like that?

That's what we are dealing with in terms of competition. So I really struggled to see how

Hyundai can charge close to 60 grand. I mean, yes, on with on roads, you're looking at $45,000 car

for that GAC Ion, which is similarly sized, similarly equipped, if not a little bit better

in some ways. I think it's got like fully reclining seats and things that, you know, Chinese buyers

really value. So yeah, I think the price competition is here. Like it's 2026, I think,

is the year of the EV price war. We're going to see some massive deals.

Totally. Now that car is phenomenal, by the way. I really like it. I keep comparing it to the

Julie EX5 in my review with Joy. But it's a phenomenal vehicle. I think it actually drives

better than the EX5. A bit more stable suspension. It's got a freezer, by the way, freezer fridge

in the middle armrest. So I got some ice creams and we drove to the Blue Mountains and

the ice creams were still cold. So that's coming on the video. All right. So that's a selling

point. Absolutely. Totally. It was a hot day, as you know. So it was great. Great to have the

ice creams after the drive. But back to that, back to the comparison. So it's got

a bigger battery as well than the Geely EX5 for a similar price. So not a bad deal, actually.

And speaking of which, sorry, the EX5, I think it sold less than 200 units in December.

It's a good car. Like we know it's a good car. But just the competition is really ramping up now.

So given the first livery started in March, April, I think it's...

We'll see how 2026 holds for Geely. But yeah, just they need a new product. And I think someone's asked

in the chatroom that EX2 is coming. And that's the second half of this year.

Yeah. Honestly, the price war this year is going to be phenomenal. And I would struggle to pay

more than 50, 55, I reckon, for an EV. Because I just know the prices will come down, right?

You'll suffer from depreciation, I know, down the line. So I think it's going to be a good

it's going to be a good year if you're looking for a bargain. So much on offer, for sure.

Yeah, HG Rider, China time. We keep saying China time. China price as well. It's coming.

And thank you, Gaffer, member for 50 months. How good is that? Congratulations. That's

that's over four years. Thank you very much, Gaffer. Always been a great supporter of the

channel. Huge news for the week. Donut Lab Solid State Battery Announcement.

You can order their motor and batteries now. 600K EV motorbike might actually go to that

story right now, actually. Because you've reminded me of that before I go to anything else. So this

is the bike that Gaffer is referring to. First, all solid state vehicle in a production vehicle,

albeit a motorcycle, but still asking 30 grand in the US. So 370 miles, which is why 500Ks

thereabouts. And a nice looking two wheeler, of course, as well. I'm not a two wheel person,

but to me it looks good. It looks really nice. It does. Yep. Nice software as well. I can see.

That looks like straight out of Cyberpunk, like straight out of the future. It's something that

I would have thought Tesla would have made. It does. It does. Absolutely. It's very much

inspired. 33 kilowatt hour. Pretty big battery actually. With a charging power of up to 200

kilowatts. Not bad. 200 kilowatt charging rate. Not bad at all. So that's good. Hopefully we'll see

some solid state stuff in our four wheel vehicles very shortly. So that is a good promise for them

for the future. Adding 300 kilometers of range. Yeah, back to the list there, John,

saying not many buying Leap Motor. Yeah, it is coming down the list as we said.

I mean, it's a Leap Motor. They are the hottest mass market brand in China at the moment. After

Xiaomi. Xiaomi is just crazy. The fanfares they've got. But Leap Motor is definitely

kicking some real goals. The amount of products they're launching and how quickly they're

launching it. We made Leap Motor's channel famous with exponential growth in their subscriber base

that they couldn't get by dropping a car out of a plane or whatever they were doing with

Channel 7 or Sunrise. We helped them there. But they are good cars. But the B10,

I think they still haven't done a media day. It's coming maybe next month. So let's see what happens.

Yeah, pretty sweet, as Richard said for the price. Yeah, under $40,000.

Have reached out many times to Leap Motor for the B10. So it is coming on the channel.

Looking forward to seeing that. Rui will drive as well. And Rui is right. All the

auto shows we've been to this year. Shanghai, Guangzhou. Leap Motor's always got a huge

stand. So much product as well. So huge brand in China. I think it's a bit of a dark

course in Australia. It's just a bit underrated. I think it's a lot of product.

Yeah, it's only I agree. It's he says for most people, it's going to be if they have

heard of the cars and brands, the new entrants need to advertise more. Probably sports movies.

Yeah, we talked about this previously. MG's sponsoring the South Indian Rabbitos in the

NRL. And BYD's got the roosters. So Australia obviously loves sports. So that's the way to go

if you want your name out there. So good point. And yeah, Richard says test drive and

out of one premium this week, my daughter is definitely buying one. So good. Excellent.

It's a great car for a young person, 100%. All right, let's push on. And we don't

call Roland, Roland spec for nothing. He was out and about obviously in January,

he's got some time. So run us through this one, Roland, 0103.29.

3.29 with a one foot rollout off. So for the ones that don't know, Tesla times are including

rollout. So it means that essentially they're taking the faster time. But this was not a Tesla

at all. This was in fact, are you ready for it? This was the IM5 performance.

So it was advertised that 3.2. And it says 3.4 but corrected because of the slope is 3.29. So

for the ones that actually cared, it lives up pretty much to its name because that 0.1 honestly,

it comes down to a variety of things like the ambient weather, what PSI the ties were at.

There's a few other things for that 0.1 of seconds, but there you have it just under 3.3

seconds from the get go. So next snapping speeds. Very good, Roland. That's obviously

the race box mini that you've got there. The race box mini. Yep, that's right. So 25

Hertz, so 25 times per second it is tracking. So it is 100% accurate.

Funny story. This is how Roland and I met actually. He had me at race box mini.

This is like a couple of years ago when we met at a car park, McQuarrie Uni in Sydney.

We chatted over the Tesla Model Y at the time, but introduced me to race box mini.

And yeah, this is the fruits of his labor. It's a great little device, not sponsored by

them of course, but it does record. It helps an average Joe like me and Roland as well,

just to record like the cars that we get. So yeah, it's good. And I am 5th grade car,

isn't it? It's a beautiful car. It drives well. And it's a sedan, which is always a good thing.

Yeah, low, good seating position. It surprised me, I'll be honest. I've still got content to

record and put out, but the overall view is it drives very well. It caught me off guard for sure.

I'll put it that way. Good. Good. I'm glad you agree. It's a good car. Very nice. Not many sedans

out there, but this is one of the one of the good ones. Yeah. Is this Roland speeding fine asks?

The points double demerits in January, we know. Just to the speed limit. Well, I think Roland mentioned

that in the beginning of this stream, he's been sitting in an air conditioned room for the whole

day because he wants to hit the drags, but he can't. Having said that, that is that is pretty

cool. That's, that's, that I am 5th. Now imagine Xiaomi SU7 Ultra. If we got that here and we got

Roland behind the wheel of that, it will be. I'll do multiple times. I'll take the viewers

somehow, somewhere. If they let us, we can do it. For science. For science, right? One,

for science. One passenger, two passenger, three passengers. We've got to do it all.

No, you know what? We will use it to grow their social media channel.

Yes. Yes. They need help. Yeah. Back to the awareness thing, right? Brands like IAM,

they need us to promote stuff like this. So happy to help. 100%.

Thanks for all of that. And this one was spotted in Albury a couple of days ago.

Look at that. That is, I'm pretty sure that's an X9, gents. It is.

Beautiful car. Yep. Yep. Nice camera as well, a bit different from the usual Zebra stripes. It's

got a different sort of feel to it. I'm pretty sure this is the Tesla Superchargers in Albury

at the, at the club there. So good to see it charging there. It's a great car. If you guys

haven't seen it yet, it's, it's really nice on the inside. Very, very luxurious.

Yeah. Hopefully that is coming to Australia in 2026, Riz. We'll see.

Oh yeah. It was supposed to be here in 2025. So 2026 is the year. We'll see.

In all the shows they've been saying, as in the EV shows, they've been saying

2026 last year. So it's got to be this year.

I hope so. 2026 is only a week old, but we are thirsty for cars like this for sure.

Also with the all-wheel-drive for Roland to do the race box mini-test on as well.

I will totally do it, but the one thing I'm actually really looking forward to in this car

is actually the four-wheel steering, because none of the other people who have it,

and people move as a huge, this is a 5.3-meter car we're talking about.

Have you tested out the four-wheel steering in the IM5 yet?

Yes, I did. And I did the crowd vote. I did everything. It was the open car path.

It was, oh, I could not believe the turning circle. So the Ato1 that we've been talking about

on the live stream tonight is only slightly smaller, like the turning circle is 9.9 meters

for the Ato1, and the IM5 was 9.98. So it literally matches like a Volkswagen Polo or a Toyota

Yaris. Amazing. So for a 5-meter car.

It's like doing a very slow donut right in the car park with a four-wheel steer.

Yeah, it's pretty good. Now, I think that's the appeal of the IM5, IM6, the crab mode,

the very small turning circle, the AI reverse, that stuff. That's why you get it, I reckon.

They're pretty cool features. So that is the X9 in action. Thank you to Marcus for spotting

that and tagging us. Now, let's talk about this Riz, the Xiaomi Su7 coming to China in April,

2026, not far away, asking $3,200 US dollars, which is a pretty darn good deal. You asked me?

Yeah, so this is the updated version. This is sort of the, so they're doing this refresh

from the sounds of things sort of at the second two years after they announced the first

version of the car, which was back in 2024. Getting quite a lot of tech upgrades. I think the base

model has gone from 400 volt to close to 800 volt architecture, faster charging, good battery tech.

They've had a few incidents in the last year or so, mainly around sort of the safety element

where people were trapped in cars and a whole lot of things. They've tried to

make major improvements, updating the number of airbags, the maximum sort of body strength

that it's got as well. And I think even a roll cage of some sort has sort of been put into

it as well. So quite a lot of big changes they've made to this vehicle now and

you know, and more power, of course, more power, even the base models and stuff have more power.

Never enough. So yeah, I think it's going to continue to sell really well. I have heard that

after two years or so variants like Ultra, which was launched about a year ago or less than a year

ago, you know, that top spec variant has, now you can find quite a few on the used EV markets

in China for, you know, about 20% below what they are new. But with this sort of tech upgrades in

the standard, I think it's Max and Pro or Pro and Max variants, it's going to continue to sell really

well. Yeah, I love the nomenclature. It's like an iPhone 17. Isn't it Pro Max? I personally can't

tell the difference between the new and the old just looking at it. I mean, obviously there's

new tech in there, but I'm sure there are little minor improvements for Aero and so on.

But it just looks good. And having seen the Ultra U7 in Guangzhou recently, it's a phenomenal

looking vehicle. And you still, you cannot believe the price of this car, honestly.

And for all the tech that's included, obviously all the Xiaomi accessories fit beautifully

in there as well. So I guess, Gents, the question is when, when, when Australia and

overseas, right? That is the question. 26 for Europe level, I think Q3, Q4 for Europe. And then

not sure about right hand drives. I probably think later half of 2027, possibly for right hand drive

markets. Yeah, almost 900 volt charging. So it'll be very fast. And obviously the range

at the headline there, that's, that's obviously CLTC. So take that with the grain of salt,

probably even if it's 700, I'll take that. That's, that's pretty good range already, right?

Yeah, I was going to say, even if it's 600. Correct. Yep. I'll still be happy.

Let foot? No, Roland, surely not.

No, it's good. Good pricing. Look at that. Based 32 grand and then the top spec, 44

US dollars. So that's like 60, 65 Aussie. So that's still very good.

Yeah. Well, we can only dream hopefully that, that'll come to Australia if not this year, the next

year. So fingers crossed. And just a bit more Tesla news from Roland here. So what is this,

what's going on here? Is there a hairline crack in the taillight apparently?

In the taillight, yeah. So I had a good friend of mine sent me a photo, not this one. This

was just a picture that I found. So I could show where it was. It's the other picture. Yeah. So

that was the actual picture. So you can see a hairline crack where the red is and it's pretty

much like a two piece part on the taillight. So the green is just where it actually connects on.

So apparently it's potentially something that's common. So I guess just wanting to see if

anyone has heard of it as well. But there has been a few instances that it has been

reported. So yeah, just bringing that to light. Okay. Well, if anyone in the chat who is a Model Y

Juniper owner, let us know. See if it's a common thing. Seen any issues in the forums or Reddit or

Facebook about this? Not in particular recently. But the friend's car when I asked,

wasn't parked outside, no impact damage. It was just something that just happened. So

realistically, I don't think it should be a concern. It's more of a new sense of anything

because it's the need to take it through to warranty. But it will obviously get fixed.

So just just a couple of points, Roland, do you know when your friend picked the car up?

Like which month? I don't know. I'd have to find out. Yeah, because usually if they are going

to be sort of defects in some things, they usually pop up within the first three months.

So there's like, you know, in engineering, there's a bit of a defect curve. So first three months,

you're going to see like 95% of the defects. If they're going to pop up, they'll pop up.

And then, you know, very rare that it happens unless it's after it's used by live. So

yeah, if we do see anything, I'll share it with the community as well.

Tom, I think you're on mute. Sorry. Thank you, Roland. Thank you, Riz. And yes,

this is what we're about. PSAs for Tesla and other brands, of course. And finally,

I just wanted to touch on this one. This is something shared to us from Rob S.

You can see what's going on as you pull up, right? State of charge for the vehicle,

how long it takes to get 80%. I think that is a nice quality of life thing and just,

you know, reduces anxiety for people pulling up to a charger that way, if they're waiting for something,

look to see what's going on, which one to queue behind.

Some more things like that, right? On the EV app, by the way, just having driven

to Canberra recently with the IM6, you can actually see the state of charge of the

other people on the... I think that's quite cool. So, you know, you can kind of see,

okay, this guy's at 90% or whatever, let's queue behind them. I think that's quite a handy feature.

Yeah. Anyone in the chat had to queue this holiday just on your drives,

DVs at the moment? That story is... Well, that sort of news cycle has kind of died

down, right? I remember a couple of years ago with the EV queues that was making all the

news over the summer break. Haven't heard much of that recently.

Nothing at all. Yeah. That's probably testament to all the charging infrastructure that's been

rolling out last year, all the good work done by Tesla and all the other CPOs.

Yeah. And also, they're getting, you know, Tesla, of course, has opened quite a few sites to

non-Teslas as well. So, we're actually opening huge network to all vehicles.

And also, I think, you know, people are getting smarter about it as well.

You know, they're not... They're learning things. And, yeah, there's just way more

plugs and things are improving quite significantly. So, yeah, this year was better than last year.

Last year, there were a couple of interesting things where I think Tesla was like offering

some really significant discounts for charging after hours during those peak periods,

which is, I think, a good thing. But yeah, this year just didn't seem to be that way.

Another trend, of course, is we do have vehicles that are charging faster.

So, two or three years ago, you know, Tesla's charged at a particular speed. A lot of the other

ones weren't. But if you think about some of the more popular cars that we've spoken about

today, like the Sea Lion 7, they're charging 150 kilowatts. And, you know, it's no longer a

60, 70 kilowatt thing. So, yeah, all of those things are playing a role.

Yeah, that's what it is. Not just more chargers, but faster chargers. Cars that can support that.

Just sort of, yeah, just UX stuff like, you know, things in the apps. You can see how much

each person's state of charge is. All these things do add up to help improve the experience.

Mazda says, didn't have to queue, but had to disconnect my trailer a few times. So,

not as many pull-through stalls just yet. And I agree, yeah, a lot of these chargers

still need a roof for shelter. I experienced that today in Eastern Creek, very hot.

Yeah, could do with some shelter for sure. Unlike, you know, petrol stations, right? Petrol

stalls, they've got usually got a roof over the top. Yeah, exactly. We shouldn't be

treated as second class citizens. We should have a shelter as well.

Jon says, I was in a queue in Uroa, Victoria this weekend. Two FEVs plugged in and charging

100%. Oh, that's painful. Yeah, not so good. I mean, you can't stop them right.

They've got to be right to do this if they can DC charge. But yeah, I feel you pain though.

How long will that take? I've seen a fight. I forgot if I mentioned I've witnessed the argument

about that. Oh, do tell. So, I was plugged into a jolt charger. I plugged in hybrid and

two Teslas drove past and then I forgot what it was. It was either a BYD,

but it was another Tesla that drove past as well. I mean, it's just a small local

place for a jolt charger, right? And you've just got someone out there that's plugged in hybrid,

just plugged in there, sitting there, literally in the car. And then one of them actually got out

of the car. And words were exchanged. Just to say that around words similar to the point of

you've got a motor, right? You could just

drive off. Yeah. Drive off wasn't the word they used, but let's say drive off.

Okay. Use your imagination. I was like, oh, have we already got there?

Okay. It's tough. It's a tough one. But I think with that one as well, it's

as those cars sort of age and, you know, we like the shark and I think even the sea lion six

they've got small batteries and they can DC charge. Of course, there's others that can't.

But the solution is more charges, more charges. Yep. And probably better sign

ones as well. If you've got multiple stalls like these, like in the UK, I saw like,

fast or ultra fast or slow. So maybe like speed. Some people know, okay, I mean,

you can't stop people charging at a fast charger. But the courtesy would be to

if you've got a slow charger, if you know, you've got a slow charging car,

then go to the slow one. But I don't know. I'm not sure what the answer is. It might just be

courtesy. But we are, you know, we're starting to see more like range extender vehicles too,

right? Like bigger batteries in EVs or FEVs. Much bigger batteries. Yeah. So yeah, interesting,

isn't it? You've got let's say 30, 40 kilowatt hour battery. That's, that's almost EV size,

right? With an engine as well as a generator. Yeah, a lot of them can charge pretty

quickly as well. The CATL batteries for FEVs are like some ridiculous charging speeds as well.

Probably charge faster than some addos. So yeah, interesting to see if,

yeah, I'm curious to see if manufacturers actually bring those to Australia because

like 500K is a range or 400, 300K is a range on a FEV. It's still paying for everything. You're

paying for the battery, you're paying for the engine, you're paying for the maintenance, you're

paying for, I would like to think we would skip the FEV error in a big way because it's

starting to happen in China now where all these manufacturers are going in and putting in FEVs

and putting in FEVs into their models, XPEN being one as an example. But the data is saying

something different. They're saying the FEVs actually dropping, the FEVs are the ones that

are really designed to take a strong hold on the market. I remember being at the XPEN day,

the XPEN trip last year, they produced these FEVs and the Reeves just to cater for markets

like Australia with the charging infrastructure still not quite there. Obviously, Europe is

some parts of Europe, even America potentially. So it's still that transition, right? So they're

producing these cars for our market. But you're right Reeves, I personally like to see

more charges so we don't have to deal with the FEVs and just skip all that and just go

straight to BEVs with solid state or just faster charging, either way would be good.

We'll see what 2026 brings of course. Donald says we should put more charges and

servos on the highway. Yeah, like the Amphol at Eastern Creek, I think that's a quite good setup

actually. Lots of charges on the servo. The service center is not far away as well,

the toilets and so on. Richard, you're right, not many people know their charge rate and

they just don't know. I agree. It would be good to have some sort of education from

dealers or people who sell these cars maybe. That'll help. I guess not many people know

the flow rate at the petrol pump seater. That's right. I have seen high flow diesel

and they say don't put it into a ute when I use the driver ute back in the day for work.

But it was the quickest way to fill up. So you just go in, you just need to make sure you stop

before. Yeah, that's right. That's right. And yeah, Gaffers is the airways are swamped with

hybrid ads. They are. I don't think Joe understands. Joe Public.

You've seen the Geely one. I think Tom was talking about this one offline. The big Geely

Starray as what is it? The petrol when you need it and electric when you want or vice versa.

It's big billboards with that. And I'm thinking really like.

Well, obviously appeals to a certain market, right? Still got the range anxiety for a lot of people.

Yeah, one problem with the charges on the highways is that freeways are not where

the electrical infrastructure is. That's also very true, unfortunately.

All right, gents. Well, there we go. That's the first show of 2026 all wrapped up.

Excellent. Good to get that out of the way. But great to have so many of you watching as

well at the 48-minute mark. 155 viewers. So good. And of course, thank you to our co-host,

Riz and Roland for the first show of the year. Gents, as always, thank you very much for

your time. Thanks for having us on. Thank you. Thank you. And yeah, we'll have

interesting show next week. Actually, just give you a preview. We might actually do

something a bit different. We've got potentially a special guest from the US

who has attended the CES show in Las Vegas. And we might have him on to chat about that.

So stay tuned for that. We've got that coming up next Wednesday. Should be good.

Alrighty. Here we go. This is a good suggestion for the burbs. Perhaps have a maximum kilowatt

rate on the inside of the filler flap. That is not a bad idea. Like on the petrol cap,

right? Or petrol lid, you know, unleaded only or something, but have the kilowatt number

for these cars. Now, we have seen what's inside those flaps previously. And it's something

along the lines of do not apply hose violently, which is tarned inundated with water.

So maybe they can replace that with a maximum. Yeah, something useful. Yeah, that's right.

All right, everyone. Well, thanks for watching. And thank you, Riz and Roland. Sorry,

I moved that one and put our sponsors page up. There we go. All right.

Thanks, guys. And thanks, ladies. Thank you for watching. And we'll see you next week

on the show. See you later. See y'all.

Bye.

Byd Shark 6

Atto Ado2

Tesla Model Y

Tesla Model 3

Sealion Cline 7

Byd Seal

Ford Ranger

Toyota Hilux

Zeekr Zika 7X

Kia EV5

Toyota bZ4X

Chevrolet C10

Alpina B10

Seagull

Aion Gac Ion V

Galaxy Geely Ex5

Xiaomi SU7

About this episode

Original notes