January 2026 BEV Sales Data: BYD Continues to Dominate in Australia

Greetings everyone, I'm Tom.

Thanks for joining us tonight on the EV show by Ludacris feed that today is the 4th of February, the Wednesday 4th of February, 2026

9 p.m. Australian Eastern Daylight Time. Thank you so much for joining us. Should be a good show as always.

Let's welcome our cohost for this evening, of course the one and only Mr. Rezacta. Hello Rez. How are we?

Hey Tom, good to be on. Where are we? We're sort of early fab now. First month is already gone. There's quite a few interesting trends in terms of sales and everything else, what we're here for.

So yeah, we'll dive into that. But yeah, how have you been Tom?

Not bad Rez. Yeah, it's been a bit of a warmest day here in Sydney, but nothing too much to complain about. But no, it's been good.

So Rez, you've been good?

Yeah, now good. I've had my first Bonser flight last Thursday after our live stream. So first interstate trip done. They've got an upgrade Wi-Fi services.

We're still figuring out whether Bonser wants to go with Starlink or just mount a telegraph pole on top of the plane.

Well, if there's one person who can upgrade Bonser, it's Rez. But you know what? Sometimes it's nice to have no Wi-Fi on the plane. It's kind of like the last bastion of off-lineness, right?

We don't get that very often anymore. So might not be a bad thing. Let's say hello. Well, thank you to our sponsors for this evening as always.

Thank you to Power Shop, our friends at Power Shop for Eevee Day and Night Plants.

And also, thank you once again to Rez from Carloop, Darla from Power Australia's Eevee Revolution doing good things in the Eevee space.

Let's say hello to our early adopters for the show this evening. Yes, early adopters. That's the right thing to say for an Eevee show.

Let's say hello to Tony Spiegel. Hey, Tony. Nice to see you. Yes, welcome. Welcome. Nice to know you tonight.

Hello, Gaffer. Nice to see you. Hello, Xander. Hello, Jim. Nice to see you as well.

Look at that. The best time of the week. Great to have you on, Jim. I enjoy Wednesday nights as well.

Hello to Murray. Hello there. And yes, BYD 1500 kilowatt charger. I saw that in the news as well.

So we might show that a bit later on. Hello, P. Dobson. Nice to see you.

Hello, Wayne from Toowoomba. Hello, Andrew. Hello, Midge. Hello, Quavehead. Hello, Howe. Hello, Rowan.

Yes, all you nice and early joiners for tonight. Thank you very much. Much appreciated.

Welcome to the show. And we must also say hi to Rowan who can't join us tonight.

He's got some family commitments, so he does send his apologies, but he'll be back next week, I'm sure.

So hello to Rowan. All right. Well, Riz, let's start the show with what we are all here for.

And that is to discover what has been the sales figures for January 2026, the first month of the year.

So let's see how are the big guns doing as always. You can expect BYD, Tesla, of course.

So let's have a look at the top 10 numbers or top 12, I should say, for the month of January 2026. Take it away.

So, yeah, it's raining BYD. So if you ever thought about building your dream, January 2026 was the month.

It's BYD all over. And then you have, you know, one and two to BYD, Zika, 7X out doing the more, well, the cheaper GLEX5 from its, you know, one of its sister companies.

And there's a few people that are still waiting to get their cars in the coming months.

So that number could have been higher. So the cars are definitely here.

They just haven't, some of them haven't been delivered to customers.

And I think that's going to happen in February. And then, you know, BYD seal, Tom, you've inspired so many to put blue calipers on.

And then, basically, it's an ultimate passenger sedan out doing the Model Y.

Yeah, I find that very interesting, isn't it? As you say, BYD is really all over the shop, all over the charts, I should say, for January 2026.

I guess, yeah, Tesla Model Y, Model 3, barely making up 500 sales for the month of January. Is that a surprise to you?

I think it is because the last time Tesla sort of had a month with a five in front of it in hundreds was in April last year.

Now, April last year was prior to the refreshed Model Y being delivered.

There was still a lot of older stock in inventory as well, quite heavily discounted.

But this time around, there shouldn't be any issues because we have plenty of inventory,

plenty of discounted inventory on the Model 3 and the Model Y.

The performance variant is here for the Model Y.

We have a cheaper, long range rear-wheel drive for the Model 3.

Model 3 sales usually are anywhere between a quarter and a third of the total Tesla sales and the rest of them are Model Ys in a normal month.

Here, we can see the impact of the incentive that Tesla had for trading in your car and getting $2,000 off the price of a Model 3 that was in January.

So that's had a bit of an impact in increasing those sales.

But yeah, look, it's basically BYD Galore and then you have the EB-5.

Surprise, I would have thought they would have had a slightly better month because Kia, of course, in January, is Australia open.

They're all over the media, the marketing.

There is plenty of huge billboards saying Kia's electric range that are all around the country at the moment.

When you look at the board, it sort of makes you think, wow, I didn't realize Kia had that many electric models, but they do.

So the EB-5 obviously being in the most popular segment, the mid-sized family SUV.

And then, yeah, BYD again, Dolphin Ato-1, the first big month of sales because December was 88 sales and even Ato-3 doing relatively well as well.

Yeah, and don't forget, Tesla 2 has FSD, supervised, released as well.

So they've got their full gamut of weapons to sell cars and so to speak.

And yeah, still sort of languishing behind there.

We've got comments in the chat about the fact that maybe Tesla sometimes does better towards the end of the quarter.

We kind of hear that every single year.

Yes, Tesla sales generally do lag a bit in the first one or two months of the quarter.

Is that a reasonable excuse this day and age?

You did say they've got inventory in the country now.

Yeah, so look, it's a valid point because every beginning of every quarter, it is a little bit slow.

But just to put it into perspective, last January they had 730-something cars delivered.

That was without the refresh model Y, which you could order at that time.

So that's about a 30% drop between last January and this January.

Interestingly as well, the third month of every quarter, Tesla usually has a really, really positive, strong, solid month.

It wasn't the same in quarter four last year.

The second month had more sales than December.

So November had more sales than December.

So that's also an interesting sort of trend.

Shipments could have been to do with a whole lot of other things, but there is plenty of inventory at the moment.

So yeah, I wonder what, as you said, what is the next bit of thing they're going to pull out of the arsenal?

I can think of so many they've done in the past.

We've had referral programs.

We've had supercharging incentives.

I'd love to see them bundle in power walls and other things at a reasonable price.

But yeah, I don't know.

It's quite interesting to see.

But if this is the trend and if this is what we start with, what happens closer to the end of the year?

Because last year, BYDC line seven was the second best selling car, electric car after Tesla Model Y.

Even at this stage, it's very easy to say that BYDC will outsell Tesla in terms of electric car sales in Australia by the end of this year,

given the lineup they've got today and what they've got sort of planned as well for the rest of the year.

Yeah, good point, Riz.

And look, we are looking at 8.2% of sales in January, which is a huge number for the first month of the year.

I'm just looking at your article here.

So 8.4% of new car sales were EVs, BEVs in January.

Considering this time last year, we're talking like less than 5%, right?

All around that figure for 2025.

So things are looking up.

And look, let's not take away from the fact that BYDC line seven, 1,171, that is a phenomenal number.

Followed by the A2, which is like less than a third of the number of sales for C-line seven.

I think the seven is just pitched correctly.

It's just a good vehicle that's appealing to a lot of people.

It's priced correctly.

There's a lot of features and it drives reasonably well.

Just the nice mid-sized SUV that I think Australia possibly is looking for in EVs.

So yeah, I mean, that's a great achievement for BYD indeed.

I think the other thing as well here now is that BYD had incentives as well during the month.

So C-line seven for most of December had from memory, I think it was a $3,000 or $4,000 cashback.

And then they also had a $3,000 cashback for most of January as well on that car.

And I think at the moment for February, it's cool.

They're trying different things, right?

So for February, they've actually got a drive away price on the C-line seven premium.

So the drive away price is $54,990, whatever the standard recommended retail prices.

But the customer doesn't have to pay on-road costs.

The BYD will pay for that, which in Victoria is nearly $4,000.

So it's basically giving $4,000 cashback.

But doing it in a really clever way on BYD C-line seven premiums, which is the bulk of their orders.

And look, we know prices and everything.

Australians are smart.

They are flocking towards reliable brands.

BYD has kind of proven their worth.

They've been in the country for, we're talking four years now, almost four years.

They've got a dealer network, service network, very well known across the world now.

It's making headlines that's being Tesla and BEV sales.

So Australians aren't stupid.

They've done their homework and they know BYD is here to stay.

And yeah, you can see the figures there.

It's certainly to be applauded.

Zika Seven X, I'm happy to see that car there because that's my personal, one of my personal favourites in that sort of mid SUV segment.

It's a great car, especially in the all drive segment.

All drive variants, very good purchase.

So good to see those numbers still nice and high.

GLE EX5 also very good to see up there.

Very good value car for that smaller mid size SUV.

Not seeing GAC AONV.

I think someone said in the comments probably two early days, I'd say.

Yeah, I think they're not reporting just yet.

I also tried to pull up just because I was curious.

Denzer, because at the moment they've got plug-in hybrids that they are starting to deliver.

But I didn't see them in the V-facts numbers.

Another notable mention here is the Amota Jku J5.

Now that first big month, 215 sales.

It is at a pretty special discounted price of $36,990 drive away.

Anyone that's interested, check out Tom's Android's review.

I think that of all intents, that's the price point we're playing with now.

It's crazy.

I must say, I'm a little bit surprised that hasn't sold more in the first month.

Maybe again, it's early days, maybe they're still delivering cars.

But given all the hype and all the fanfare and excitement for this car,

which as you said, raises price extremely well,

especially with that offer at the moment, the crazy driveway offer.

Hopefully we'll see more of those numbers as well.

Obviously, notable exceptions like Peng certainly doesn't report their numbers.

But I would think surely with the discounting they've got going on,

you would think they would make the top 12 if they were to report the numbers with the G6.

Look, I hear on the grapevine that even, I'll just say this much,

even if they did the discount, even with that that they've got at the moment,

they wouldn't make it in the top 12 for January.

Unfortunately, they've, I think a lot of people are waiting for the new model,

which as we discussed is last week on the live stream is launched in New Zealand.

So we're sort of like, you know, waiting what's going to happen.

I did get an email this week from a TV and X-Pen saying that last couple of days

before this $5,000 cashback ends, and I said, bro, you've been saying that for 12 months.

So we'll find out what happens.

Well, hopefully we're close to getting the new one, hopefully Riz.

Fingers crossed, right? That would be good.

Great to see, especially the all drive.

I'd love to test that on our roads for sure.

Yeah, other notable mentions I would think, you know, the DPAL SO7,

some crazy discounting going on as well.

We've got that coming up as well to discuss.

Does DPAL normally, you know, report their numbers?

They do. I think the SO7 did 60 sales in January.

That's not a bad car, actually. Very good value for a rural drive SUV.

So yeah, again, probably the awareness thing with the brand name for sure.

Yeah, so that's good. That's the top 12.

And I think it's, you know, not too many surprises there.

I would think BYD is just smashing it at the moment with their sales numbers.

Yeah, we'll see what JQ does in the next month or so.

And then see if Zeke can hold that top three position along with Geely.

And see where the Tesla bounces back.

We shall see. Very interesting times ahead.

Thanks, Riz, for the article. Very good.

Let's keep going. Let's take some comments, actually, from the audience.

Yes.

HK said that the new X-Pen G6 facelift in Australia,

Tacoma has two RNX chips, which technically makes FSDX and GP ready.

If true, of course, it is probably ready if we've got the two chips.

Again, Riz, we probably don't know, do we, with the final tech specs at the stage?

Yeah, at this stage, we're not sure about sort of, even in New Zealand,

there is a spec there, but we just don't know what is sort of included.

And then, of course, there's no real X and GP training on right-hand drive roads,

as far as I know.

Yeah, I think that's the main issue.

We've only seen Tesla train the FSD at the moment,

nor the company has trained the high-level two autonomy at this stage.

So, all right.

Yes, Quaif had one of the 562 Ato3s.

Well done. Fantastic.

We've got some Ato3 news, actually, as well, very soon.

So stay tuned about that.

I must have saying the amazing thing was that a number 13 was the Ato3 to be set for X.

I actually saw that car in the wild today, Toyota BZ4X, an unusual sighting,

I must say, in my neck of the woods.

So, interesting. Are we talking fleet buyers, Riz, for those numbers?

What's going on?

Yeah, they're getting out there.

Look, I think it's fleet.

I think it's Toyota's brand.

Like, it clearly shows there's people that want an electric car.

Why wait, you know, what is it, 12 plus months for a RAV4?

I don't even know if that's the time anymore.

But why wait for that when you can, and pay over 50 grand for that car

when you can, you know, buy an electric car relatively easily?

So, yeah, I guess we will find out.

Yeah, I was seeing when the RAV4 plug-in hybrid was coming to Australia,

it is late 2026, and you're right, Riz, it's not cheap.

They're asking quite a lot of money.

I think at this stage, Toyota are sort of taking the mickey.

They're sort of asking a lot of money.

You know, they're saying, look, Australians love us, and we are going to charge for it.

I think that's fair enough.

I'll probably do the same for us too, right?

But yeah, we'll see how long that lasts for, given all the, as you say,

all the EV choices coming out of China at the moment.

So, indeed, very good.

So, yeah, we'll keep those sales figures going for the year.

Look, again, 8.4% for January is actually very impressive.

Yeah, considering we're so early in the year too.

I will say one more thing as well, that given the, we get, you know,

we get data sets on everything, including what's going to happen.

Crystal ball.

It's a pretty accurate crystal ball as well,

which we see the ships coming into the country,

and we also see what's on them.

And let's just say the performance of BYD in January is just the tip of the iceberg.

So, what was it?

Jamburu, I can't even pronounce it.

Jamburu.

There is going to be a few more of those with how many cars they're bringing into the country.

So, I think it's, they're not going to lose this year.

Where will they park their cars next?

That's right.

Yeah, if anyone sees them, let us know.

We want to know where they are.

We want the photos.

We want the proof, indeed.

Now, speaking of Geely EX5, I just wanted to give a shout out to one of our viewers,

Darren, who sent me one of these over-the-air updates from Geely.

Now, I must say, I think Geely do this very well in Australia, the over-the-air updates.

You know, what do you call it?

What am I going to say?

Memo?

Yeah, memo, like, you know, the release notes, release notes.

Yeah, I think they're probably, I was going to say maybe second to Tesla,

but you know, I think this is presented very well in this document that they sent out to customers.

But in essence, it looks like this applies to all MI2526 Geely EX5 complete and inspired models,

so across the whole fleet in Australia.

And I didn't realize that Android Auto is still not available.

So it looks like as of today, or as of when this update was given,

it is now available in wired and wireless formats for you Android fans, which is great.

And the air conditioning controls are still visible on the screen,

so you don't have to keep toggling as you do in some other cars too, which is fantastic for phone projection.

And, you know, ADAS obviously is still an issue with these new cars.

It's still annoying for some people sometimes, depending on the brand,

but it looks like you can actually set up a drive profile now with the Geely EX5.

So like my MGS5, you can set up, you know, what you prefer to have on the ADAS.

So drive mode, recoup level, lane keeping assist, emergency lane keeping, all that stuff can be set to a drive setup,

and then you can just switch it on every time, which is very good.

That's quite a nice quality of life improvement.

Three choices of EVAS.

Gone are the days of the annoying ice cream truck sound, which is good.

And tailgate control is also upgraded as well and optimized,

and there's also confirmation sound for drive mode.

So Riz, that's great to see Geely looking after its customers that way.

Yeah, you're right, Tom.

I think they do a very good job at the way they send these out to their customers.

And as far as I can tell, this would be like maybe a third or fourth update

in the last less than 12 months, which is up there,

because I think maybe the CL-7 has had two updates at best in the last 12 months.

So yeah, Geely is doing a good job at that.

Yeah, I mean, even if it's a small update, right?

I think people appreciate the fact that their cars are getting better with the software updates.

So that's a nice quality of life thing, makes people happy.

I think all these cars, all these brands should be doing it.

So yeah, hats off to Geely.

But presenting it so well, looking after their customers too.

Thank you to Darren for showing that to us as well.

Now, Max is asking, can you modify the lowest speed sound?

Looks like you can, Max.

Let's have a quick look again at the release notes.

Three choices of EVAS.

Refer to acoustic vehicle learning sound.

I don't know whether you can change the noise, like the sound of it,

but it looks like you can modify the different tones or different noises.

So anyway, someone can confirm that if you've got the Geely X5, let us know.

Now, just staying with Tesla for the time being.

So we kind of alluded to this as well in our run down of the top selling cars for January.

So I'm sure a lot of you already know that Tesla is going to rename its lineup,

its model lineup in Australia.

They won't be adding any new cars to their lineup,

but they'll be renaming the current lineup to, I think, premium.

So premium model three, insert variant there,

and also Tesla Model Y premium insert variants.

So yeah, that was confirmed this week in a press release from Tesla.

And there you go, Riz has got the prices there for us to look at.

The prices, I don't think, have changed either, Riz, have they?

No, the prices are still the same.

Obviously, for those that might have missed it because it's easy to miss,

but they obviously late last year, they got rid of the long range all wheel drive

from the Tesla Model 3 lineup.

So now it's the Tesla Model 3 premium long range three wheel drive starting at 61,900 plus on roads.

So yeah, they've added premium for all non-performance models.

Now, what was surprising in this press release was they clearly said that there is,

we're changing this not because there's something else that's going to happen,

but we are not expecting to see, or basically the wording is the standard model,

which is the cheaper model in the US, Europe, UK, and other markets that we've been covering,

is not destined for Australia and New Zealand.

Very interesting, isn't it?

I wonder whether it's because in Australia we have so much competition from the Chinese brands,

as we saw in the sales chart earlier from Riz's article.

Could that be the case?

Because I guess Tesla don't want to minimize their interior any more,

given there's so many premium options coming from China anyway that are priced so well.

What do you reckon? Is that a reasonable explanation?

Yeah, that's right.

How much can you take out?

There's a lot more in the second generation of both Model 3 and Model Y

than what we had in the first generations.

Having said that, if you start to take things out,

let's say in other markets the Model 3 standard is around 10% to 12% cheaper.

So 10% cheaper would make it just under 50 grand for the Model 3,

and for Model Y it's about 12% to 14%, so that might be 52 grand plus on roads.

I don't know if that's going to be enough to convince people to buy a Tesla.

I think there's other things such as Tesla not doing any marketing,

or any sort of conventional marketing, let's call it that.

The FSD stuff in some ways has fizzled out now because obviously it was launched in September,

there were ads everywhere, there were lots of showcases and different shows that we had.

So now it's sort of, this is the lineup, and they will make improvements to it

like they always do to their cars, but they're not visually that much more different.

So everyday punters just don't know, they think it looks the same.

So yeah, interesting time, so we're not going to get anything cheaper,

which I don't think would have sold that much anyway.

But at the same time, basically the lineup is what the lineup is now.

Yeah, that's the thing with Tesla, and FatDor is just articulating

what I was talking to Riz off camera as well earlier today.

He says, I really don't know how Tesla can retain their existing customers

with the same car year after year, only a facelift, that's all.

In a world where we expect a new model every year, not just from cars,

but from phones, a new iPhone every year, a new Samsung every year, whatever,

a new Google Pixel every year, Tesla's, they don't release a new model every year.

It's obviously, they're great with software, they improve the software year after year, FSD, you name it.

But I don't know, something about the human psyche where we need to see hardware,

we need to see what we can physically touch and improve.

I think it's starting to drag a little bit.

You've certainly got the die-hard, rusted on fans that are happy to have the same car

and expect software updates, but people kind of want to see new,

even if it's a small improvement, it's still a new car.

So I think, I don't know whether Tesla will change their tune in coming years.

That's what I want to see.

Well, let's see the Australian context, right?

We were supposed to get the refreshed Model S and X, they didn't come.

Then there was hope that maybe when they do another refresh of the refresh,

that we were going to get that.

But now it looks like, which I think happened after our last live stream,

that Model S and X are officially, you know, going to be phased out at the end of Q2.

So, you know, I understand the Tesla's going in a different direction.

They want to focus on robotics.

They want to focus on cybercaps.

They want to focus on a few other things.

But at the same time, you know, what does it actually mean?

Also, if Tesla, hypothetically speaking, does decide to sell the Model Vi L, the six-seater,

it's unique enough where I think it could get some initial runs on the board.

But ultimately to an average punter, it looks like a model life,

which they've seen plenty of on the road and they don't know the difference.

Correct.

Correct, exactly.

Yeah, it is kind of sad.

It is really sad, actually.

They dropped the S and X as we discussed last week.

Having said that, though, I mean, we haven't discussed it yet.

We'll talk about that very shortly.

But yeah, the S that I've got now is a vintage piece.

It's a museum piece.

That's what it is.

I'm going to wait till it appreciates.

Yeah, it is disappointing.

Yeah, it's becoming a robotics AI company.

Hopefully we don't see them cutting the three and the Y.

That's what I really don't want to see.

That would be really sad.

Yeah, I think, to be honest, for the purpose of what they're trying to do,

to make Robotaxis work, they need the data.

They need all the training data system they've got.

Everyone's basically a lab rat anyway that drives one, including myself.

So it's very hard for them to, unless they've really solved autonomy

and they've got their own fleet of Robotaxis that are going around

and doing what they need to do, it will be very, very difficult for them.

So I think they need the three and the Y.

And if they move away from three and the Y, it's basically,

they're going to be a transport company, a transportation company.

Which is not a bad thing.

We can see Uber, a DD running just a fleet of cars that aren't there.

So it could potentially hit that way.

We don't know how they are heading towards Robotics and AI, for sure.

That's right, Tony.

I do have a collectible now, absolutely.

And Sim, I agree.

The Goldwing, Tesla X or the Falconwing doors, they are like,

that's iconic for the brand, right?

Tesla Model X.

Roland's got a Model X.

Nash has got a Model X.

I don't think they'll be selling those either.

They are museum pieces as well.

So that's good.

If anyone's interested, if anyone's interested,

there is someone that wants to sell a Model X.

One of our avid viewers, which I might talk to you about offline, Tom,

but I think they're selling it at the wrong time

because they're becoming collectibles.

Yes, don't sell it.

Keep it.

It's going to appreciate every time.

Now, before we move on, I just wanted to highlight this picture here

that you've got here.

How is this restaurant here, the dumpling table?

I was just looking at that today at Shui Jiao.

So that's like dumpling.

How was it?

Was it good?

Is that your photo?

Tom, you know, this is actually taken in South Yara on Turak Road.

I don't really deviate too far from Turak Road

being living in East Turak.

Good place.

I've only been there once.

But anyone that's interested,

there's quite a few nice restaurants along Turak Road in South Yara.

Yeah.

I don't think I've seen a tobacconist in a while,

like an old school tobacconist.

That's a very old school.

Nice.

Okay.

All right.

Thanks, Riz.

Now, we should probably talk about this.

So this just quickly, yes, we touched on it,

the SNX production officially.

This is from the Tesla X account.

One down next quarter, meaning quarter to 2026.

So if you'd like to own one now,

it's definitely a good time to play shorter

because this is the last time it's a run out.

So, yeah, so at least they're acknowledging the fact

that Tesla wouldn't be what it is today without Model S and X

and the early owners.

Thank you for your support over the last decade.

You are more than welcome, Tesla.

And I'm very happy with the Model S that I've still got.

Certainly after 10 years.

Now, Arm has a good, I think Adam there has a good comment underneath that post.

I will have owned my Model X for eight years now says Arm.

Or next week.

Great car.

I still don't have the FSD I paid for six years ago.

That is going to be very interesting given,

given the hardware three owners for three and why still aren't getting the FSD.

Will they even bother going to Model X or S for that matter?

So, no, the theory here is that if you own a Model X

and those early Model S owners,

remember when they sent everyone an email saying,

hey, we're not going to give you the new car,

but here's your $3,000 traded bonus.

And a lot of them ended up going to get basically towards a Model Y

performance at that time.

Maybe if the Model Y L is available,

some people will opt in for that.

But yeah, it is still very, very sad to see that, you know,

like Model S has to be one of the most iconic cars in history,

especially one that really drove EV or accelerated EV adoption.

I know we live in an era right now where,

you know, BYD we saw in the sales charts,

so many of their models there.

But can you imagine what car interiors and things would look like

if Model S didn't have that large screen and basically Tesla,

this is, you know, not me making things up,

but this is written in history now that without Tesla setting up

Tesla in Shanghai, the Gigafactory, the Chinese EV industry

wouldn't be where it is today.

100%.

And even more importantly, the CEO of X-Peng Xiaopang Lei Jun,

the CEO of Xiaomi, many of these founders of these Chinese

large startup on tech, basically car companies,

smart vehicle companies, they all had a Model S,

which inspired them to think of this, you know,

century-old industry in a different way.

So a lot of inspiration from that car.

So I think it is quite sad.

And one day if I do decide to buy one and have it in a museum,

Tom, I might tap you on the shoulder so don't sell yours.

Not selling it.

No, if the powerhouse wants me to exhibit it there in Sydney,

I'd be very happy to.

So powerhouse, let us know what you think.

Yeah, another reason I think when I first saw the Model S,

I was completely blown away when I had to buy it.

And you're right, it really did spur on the EV industry.

And Tesla setting up shop in Shanghai all those years ago

certainly taught the Chinese a lot of how to build an EV

and how to manufacture it and the Chinese just ran with it.

So yeah, it really did spur things on.

So we still have to pay homage to Tesla, of course,

not the first, but certainly the ones to help spur the industry on.

Which is great.

Yes.

What if we got, I've just got a comment I wanted to see.

Yes.

Matthew said Model S is the Model T of the EV generation.

Great call.

Great call indeed.

Yes.

And yes, Model 2.

That's kind of gone by the wayside, isn't it?

I'm not even sure they're going to do that, to be honest.

The cyber cap is what it is.

Yeah, that's right.

Cyber cap.

Yeah, Tesla could have expanded in China and let them make SX,

correct?

I'm sure they could have.

It certainly could have been a market for it.

A lot of Shanghai mums and dads certainly would have bought one.

I know that.

Lightning says no more SX.

It's just going to be A. No S and X.

A.

Tesla A. Sounds like Canadian.

No, that's Canadian.

No, Americans A, isn't it?

No, no, Canadians A.

I forget.

No, you're right.

It is A.

Yes, you're right.

As part of all, yes, S and X is being disassembled,

a rather realigned for the Optimus robot.

And we saw that as well here.

So that's a post from Sawyer Merritt saying, yes, it's going to be,

yes, shifted over to creating or building Optimus,

that same line too.

Okay.

HK says advertised now in Hong Kong.

Good.

And Thailand.

Excellent.

Do you think it'll come to Australia?

I think there's a good chance, HK, that it is going to come to Australia.

It really just reminded me a year ago, I was invited to Chongqing

to visit Chang'an and DPAL's facilities.

And yes, I think there was a strong hint that Avatar would probably make it

to Australia eventually.

So they are very sexy cars.

That's a real sexy right there.

So hopefully we'll get to test that here.

So fingers crossed.

Any word, Riz?

Have you heard anything in the grapevine?

No, I have heard that there is a man on the ground in Thailand at the moment.

A friend of ours that we both know.

And they've definitely confirmed that Avatar has got quite a few models

and showrooms already so that they are starting their operation in Thailand.

And yeah, very, very nice looking cars.

I mean, even when you had the shows like you were at Guangzhou

and even in Shanghai, when you go past their stand,

you can't just, you can't help yourself but to have a look at how gorgeous

their cars are.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Avatar 1-2 making Sedan's great again.

100%.

Great cars.

Oh, BJC's living saying a signature being installed on Monday.

Fantastic.

Congratulations.

We've got a story about batteries at the end of the show.

So stay tuned.

Interesting figures from the last six months of the battery rebate.

Or about Mona for Australia.

Yeah, that's a good question.

That would be an interesting one if it does land eventually.

Well, I have high expectations from X-Pen in the next two months or so

before Beijing Auto Show.

They will be silly not to reveal the Mona SUV,

which I think is going to just kill it.

It is a very, very well equipped car.

Tom, you enjoy seeing it.

I drove it in Guangzhou.

They're top spec with XNGP.

Just surprised at the price and what you get in that excellent,

excellent sort of Sedan.

I think we need to wait for whatever is about to happen with the refresh

of the X-Pen G6.

Yep.

And what the future of X-Pen is in Australia in the way it,

yeah, what happens to the distributorship?

Yep.

As Mark is saying, yeah, will the new G6 be true EV or X-Pen Direct?

I think even true EV don't really know what's about to unfold.

So I think, I mean, that's the worst kept secret in the industry

that X-Pen is probably going to take over eventually from true EV.

The same way BYD took over from EV Direct,

but we just don't know the timing at the stage.

So that's very interesting.

And maybe they're waiting for all the current stock to be solders

before the X-Pen guys take over.

It could be a nice strategy there.

Well, it could be, but I also think how many, like if you think about X-Pen,

how are they still making the old car in the factory?

If they're supposed to have been up all upgraded to the new one.

So maybe it's left over stock,

but if New Zealand is getting the new model in right-hand drive,

then, yeah, I mean, it can't be far, Tom, as you say.

Can't be far.

No, exactly. Can't be far.

I'm guessing after Chinese New Year, which is mid-February,

I reckon we'll see some movement.

So stay tuned.

End of February, March.

That is my prediction.

Yes, me too, Gaffer.

Still waiting to see an Ato1 in the wild.

I have not seen that baby Lambo GSG yet,

but I am keeping my eyes open for sure.

And John, indeed, the Neo5 Fly coming this year.

That's another one I'm very excited about,

as well as the GELE EX2, as well as the GSE ION UT.

So many good things coming this year.

It's so exciting.

Cannot wait.

Just one more bit of Tesla news.

I promised this is the last one.

We talked about the AP hardware 4.5 last week.

I think that was a mislabeling.

There is no hardware 4.5, apparently,

but let's just scrap that.

Scrap it like the Model S, Model X.

It's not even in the pipeline.

It's just a mislabel.

Not happening.

Tesla is whining back.

OK, now let's move on to BYD.

So we talked about BYD earlier.

Pictures leaked from two days ago of the next generation.

We've talked about the golden brick battery from Zika.

We've talked about megawatt charging.

Forget that.

We're talking now 1.5 megawatt charging risk.

1,500 kilowatt dual gun charging for BYDs in China.

Photos leaked.

What do you reckon?

So it's interesting, Tom, because I think we covered

the design of this charger last week accidentally.

When we were talking about the BYD's 7-seater, the Tang,

and it was at a charging station, which I was not familiar with,

but this confirms that that layout with the cables

hanging from the top is BYD's new sort of charging setup,

which is pretty cool.

I'd like to see how it works on our next trip to China.

We will find a site and just see how it actually works.

But it is a cool idea, double gantry, sort of 1.5 megawatt,

and I'm still figuring out which cars are able to charge there.

It's probably a concept at this stage, maybe,

but unofficial reports 1,360 kilowatt, 10C+, plus is very important.

Five minutes for approximately 400 kilometers,

and apparently compatible with BYD Han, Tang,

and other flagship models as well.

So there you go.

There are the specs on the screen you can see right there.

Look, I know we discussed the fact that in Australia,

we still need just decent reliable chargers, right?

It doesn't have to be that quick.

Just 150 kilowatt, 200 kilowatts, that's plenty.

But I do understand we still need to show the world

that it is possible to charge quickly with tech like this.

And look, even if there's one or two of them on our highways,

eventually, you pay for that privilege.

That's fine.

You might be in a real hurry, right?

So I think that's still a thing we need to have done.

But the key reason, as we keep saying,

we still need those banks of just decent reliable

mid-range speed chargers.

I think that's the key to this country.

Yeah, that's right.

So we shall see.

Andrew says five minutes, 10% to 80%.

That's super quick.

That is like you have to stand next to the car quick.

You can't go to number one.

You can't go for a snack.

You have to stay with the car for sure.

Imagine charging your scooter on that.

No, I don't want to.

That might do things to my scooter.

It's not happening.

Look at that.

That's beautiful, isn't it?

That's the charging station.

That's surely a concept.

So nice, though.

Drive through as well.

Cool.

Now, we're going to talk about Atto 3.

I won't show any pics for it,

because we know the story.

We've been covering for the last two years now

the fact that the original Atto 3s

still can't charge at V3, V4 superchargers.

It's something we've been following up on.

But you had some news this week

from a friend of yours, I believe,

or from a viewer of ours.

Yeah, from a viewer down in Tessie,

apparently, BYD Atto 3.0 now

got in touch with their local dealership

and was told it was close to $700

to get this supercharger retrofit.

The question I have is,

unless they were willing to travel to mainland,

there's only two superchargers in Tasmania.

But yes, on a serious note, though,

most other people have sort of said around $300

or $280 to $300 for that retrofit kit

to ensure that those older Atto 3s can charge at a supercharger.

Okay, so us mainlanders are being quoted

$250 to $300 for that fix.

Whereas someone in Tessie is being quoted $729 for that fix.

Ah, I see what you're saying.

I thought the $729 was the general quote.

Right, so for $250 to $300,

I think that is probably reasonable, I think.

If I was an Atto 3 owner, I'd probably be happy to pay that.

Having said that, don't forget,

I'm just going to put a spanner in the works here.

My seal, and I think a lot of seal owners

didn't have to pay for this too.

So they are charging the Atto 3 owners

for some reason or other.

I guess because there's more Atto 3s.

But just beware as a PSA that I've heard

that the fix, the supercharger fix,

can potentially affect the way you V2G,

if you are potentially looking at V2G one day with your car.

So just keep that in mind if you are doing that fix.

Get some more information first.

But look, I think that's good.

At least the fix is available.

I think if you travel a lot, I've seen a lot of BBYDs

in my time at Atto 3s trying to charge at superchargers

without much luck.

So I think Tesla being one of the bigger networks around now,

I think it's certainly worth the fix

if you are going to do a road trip in this country.

So that's my recommendation.

Yeah, that's good.

Well, that's good news at least.

That's sort of semi-resolved now that BBYD

have quietly announced that.

Good.

And we talked about DPAL earlier in the sales charts.

They really are working this hard, isn't it?

End of year, end of like lunar new year,

end of Chinese new year,

end of Chinese calendar year, sales for the DPAL S07.

Now, when I first saw this X from Zapt from Roland,

I thought, oh, OK, $6,000 off their, like,

or their special price of $49,000.

But no, it's actually off their original sale price of $54, I think it is.

So that brings it down to $48,000,

which is still very good value for this car, very good value.

Yeah, it is a good car.

I think they fixed a lot of the initial issues

that they had with the software.

So it is one of the more fun SUVs to drive.

Yeah, exactly.

Rural drive, ADAS is fixed, great inclusions,

just a very solid, stable drive.

And look, they've leaned to the 6088.

That's a great number, 6088.

So lucky, so auspicious.

So...

Well, exactly.

And we say that, you know, the Ad01 or the Seagull is the baby Lambo.

Now, this is, in my opinion, in real life,

looks a little bit like the Lamborghini Urus.

Yes.

So if you want a Urus at a discounted price with $6,088 cashback,

this is the car to go for.

A Timu Urus or a Taobao Urus, if you like, right?

In a good way, right?

You're getting a very good value car.

I ordered a pair of scissors from Timu, by the way.

My first time ordering a Timu item, great item.

I was very surprised at the quality too.

So at very good price.

Kitchen scissors.

So don't knock Timu.

Do try it.

And you get Taobao's public charging as well by the EV network.

So that's very good value again.

That's a good question from Mr. Jute.

Jute, when will DPAL S05 be released?

That's a great question.

We still don't know what the stage is doing.

No, no.

But that is a good car.

That's a rural drive as well.

Small SUV, small SUV.

Now, speaking of robots.

Now, we saw this.

Riz and I have seen Iron in China.

And Iron made headlines last year, like last year,

when they was released,

when Xperon released Iron on stage.

And people are questioning whether it was a real thing,

whether it was a true robot,

because it looks so realistic.

It walks so well.

Now, this is not so polished, this presentation here,

that was caught in China.

I think this was actually in Hong Kong potential.

Let's play the reel.

Sorry if it's a bit loud.

I might actually just mute it.

But there is Iron in feminine form once again.

Just catwalking, looking very realistic.

And then you'll see as the reel plays on for our audio listeners.

It's not so stylish in a second.

So whether this was set up just to show that it's definitely a robot,

we shall see.

So for our audio listeners,

the robot is just in the center of this atrium

or this plaza right now and waving its arms.

And people doing the usual videography and so on.

And then it just collapses by itself onto its left side.

So yeah, still a bit of work there to do.

But again, I wonder whether it's just a publicity stunt here

that they've done.

What do you reckon?

Yeah, I think it's like when the Cybertruck window sort of smashed.

Yes.

It wasn't supposed to be.

But it looked like Ironhead passed out.

So the way it sort of leaned over.

But hey, good to see a public demonstration.

I think given it's only been, what is it,

a couple of months since it's unveiling,

it was early November from memory.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, still got a few things to iron out.

But look, I think we're getting there.

I think if it can prove its usefulness,

I think it could be quite useful.

Clean my house, for example, washed by car.

All those kind of things.

So we'll see.

Yeah, good question, Michael.

Why the female form?

I think when I went to explain with Joy last year,

they did kind of explain this.

I think the feminine form was used to, I guess,

to show it to be more pleasing to the eye, I guess,

for anyone watching.

So that's fair enough, I think.

You've seen those dancing robots from other companies?

At the CES show, for example?

The Unitree and...

What's the other one, Draw It Up?

I saw a Draw It Up robot.

Yeah, and then there's the Boston Dynamics,

which Hyundai owns now.

They've got the dogs and a whole lot of other robots.

So yeah, we'll soon be living in the future

for anyone that's seen Ghost in the Shell,

the Japanese anime that talks about

what the future looks like with cyborgs and androids.

Before we know it, it'll be irons and optimists everywhere.

That's right.

Dancing robots and so on.

Got to find a new job, Riz.

That might take our job soon.

That's it.

Okay, so as we wrap up the show,

I just want to quickly run through a few things.

So this is the Kia EV1.

That's spotted.

Yeah.

It's, I guess, the Kia's answer to the Procanto

and also maybe the Insta from Hyundai as well.

What do you think?

I think it's awesome,

especially if it's built on its own dedicated,

not dedicated,

but if it's built on like an EV3 type of platform,

which I think we're supposed to get an EV2 as well.

Kia is doing all the right things

as they transition most of their models to an electric one.

Yeah, look, you can't fault the Korean cars too much, to be honest.

I quite like the way they look and drive.

They're not super exciting,

but they look quite stable, reliable.

I think the pricing is just everything at the moment.

Given the Chinese onslaught we have

with all the brands coming into the country,

they just might need to align their prices a bit better.

But yeah, I mean, you might not say it's good value,

but certainly for the car you get,

I don't think you'll be too disappointed

from the experiences I've had anyway driving the press cars.

As a bit of a preview, I've got the Hyundai Alexio

coming up on the channel.

I think that it's about to be launched in the country too,

so it should be good to test that in the next few weeks.

That's a Chinese battery as well too, I believe.

Yeah, I think it's a BYD one.

Oh, there you go.

Finn Dreams.

Yeah, there it is from the back.

I know you like your K cars.

See, this week I had a chance to look at the BYD Racco,

not in person, but I thought I'll go back

and look at the little sea otter

that they're supposed to launch in February in Japan.

Yeah, just the BYD has done a lot of thinking.

I mean, they've taken a lot of inspiration from existing K cars,

those boxier K cars, but I would love to drive one of those

just to see what it's like.

20 kilowatt hour battery, plenty for city stuff, very practical.

If we could get that and we could get our laws changed

or whatever needs to change and get one of those cars here,

that would be remarkable.

And hopefully other companies can make, you know,

those smaller, boxier utility type of vehicles as well

that you could drive around in.

One of my favorite cars actually in the last couple of years

has been the Peugeot E partner

because it drives like a Golf and you can move stuff in it.

So yeah, I'd like to see more of those, but yeah,

K cars, small cars, bring them in.

I'll tell you what it is.

I think our news revolution for 2026 to get you and I

enjoy to Tokyo, the Tokyo show this year,

and then we'll just vlog and just show Riz's reaction

walking around the streets of Tokyo and all the little K cars

and the cool little K transporters driving around the streets of Tokyo.

I think you'd love it.

Yeah, we would honestly.

It would be fantastic.

Stay tuned everyone.

That could be a video of it later this year.

Okay, so just quickly just wrapping up the show.

We talked about the battery demand surging in the last part of 2025,

unsurprisingly given the very generous discounting

and the rebate from the federal government.

So pretty much they wanted this money,

this $2 billion to last until 2030.

It's pretty much almost run out because it was such good uptake.

I think they installed 100 and something thousand,

183,000 units in six months to December 31,

which is a four-fold increase in 2020 to 2024.

And it's equivalent to the combined battery sales for 2020 to 2024.

So that's crazy.

So they've increased the budget allocated to it.

It's I think the extra $5 billion.

And they've just made sure that smaller batteries also get a

decent chunk of the rebate as well.

So yeah, it's a good thing.

I guess it's stabilizing our grid.

And I think along with our solar,

I would think Australia is probably one of the highest uptakes

of battery or residential battery installations in the world now.

It's definitely looking that way.

And I think the more we can,

given the battery prices and where things are going

and with the subsidies as well.

Yeah, like it's a bit of a no-brainer.

If your house has got solar and haven't got a battery,

it's worth it given where the power prices are going.

At least you can charge with solar during the day

and then at night use what you've generated from renewable sources.

And it's saving people money.

So I think it's a really good thing.

And hopefully eventually when these subsidies do come off,

batteries are accessible for pretty much a lot of homeowners

and people that are renting.

Yeah, even if you don't play the V2G game and amber and so on,

just to be self-consuming, to have that backup as well,

it's just, I think it's a bit of a no-brainer.

If you've got the funds for it,

it's given the current rebate at the moment.

Stuart, sorry to hear your signature batteries offline.

Yeah, I guess that's the problem with new tech.

It's always the maintenance and the servicing behind it.

So hopefully signature you will pick up their game

and have some stock for you for the repairs too.

Alrighty, well, Riz, I think that might be it for tonight.

I just want to thank you once again for joining us.

What have you got for the rest of the week?

Thanks, Tom.

This week I've got EV charging industry meetup on tomorrow night.

So I'll be there talking about all things EVs charging and data.

And then that's about it.

No other trips at this stage planned for,

but I think I'll be in Sydney once or twice later this month as well.

So aside from that, all good.

What about yourself, Tom?

Are you driving anything at the moment?

Or anything viewers can look forward to apart from the Lexio?

Yeah, it's interesting.

I was just saying to you today that I've just given back my suit,

well, not mine, but the Super Result Terror.

That's actually the last press car for a while.

I don't have anything planned for the next couple of weeks.

It's been a very long run, very unusual for me.

I guess, as I've said earlier,

it's sort of maybe leading up to Chinese New Year.

Things have been quiet from the Chinese cars point of view.

But yeah, I'm sure come February, late February, early March,

I'm sure things will pick up again.

And yeah, I'm sure we'll see more events and potentially more trips as well.

So we'll keep our viewers informed as always.

But otherwise, no lightning.

There is no everything electric show in Sydney.

That has been canceled.

I should probably mention that again.

That's been postponed until September, 2026.

So there was a big announcement last week.

So make sure you are aware of that.

Don't book any flights or anything.

It's not happening.

It's not going to be on in March.

Yep.

Alrighty.

Excellent.

Riz, thank you very much again.

And thank you to our viewers.

And again, Roland sends his apologies.

He will be back with us next week, I would think.

But otherwise, from Riz and myself until next week,

it's a happy charging.

Thank you, everyone.

Bye.

January 2026 BEV Sales Data: BYD Continues to Dominate in Australia

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