VFACTS April 2023: Electric cars dominate luxury segment

The large luxury-car segment is being dominated by sales of electric vehicles, relegating once dominant models to bit-part players.

The latest new-car sales data from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries shows the once dominant Mercedes-Benz E-Class and BMW 5 Series are being overtaken by luxury electric vehicles.

The top-three selling models in the large luxury-car segment are electric, with the $180,000-plus Audi E-Tron GT leading the charge, clocking up 150 sales in the first four months of 2023.

In second place, the electric Mercedes-Benz EQE posted 134 sales over the same period, while the Porsche Taycan completes a trio of electric vehicles in the top three with 130 examples reported as sold so far this year.

Sales of the electric trio have surpassed the once-dominant segment leaders, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and BMW 5 Series which accounted for 114 and 110 sales respectively to the end of April 2023.

While the numbers are small (large cars over $70,000 represent just 0.2 per cent of the new motor vehicle market), they point to a shift in buyer preferences at the top end of town.

The market for large cars has been shrinking in Australia, as buyers favour large SUVs ahead of sedans and wagons.

Sales data for the first four months of 2023 shows Australians bought 8011 large SUVs in the over-$70,000 price bracket, an increase of 36.7 per cent when compared with the same period last year.

Data from 10 years ago shows Australians bought more than 1500 large cars over $70,000 in the first four months of the year, led by the BMW 5 Series (323 sales), Jaguar XF (304) and Mercedes-Benz E-Class (281).

A decade later, that total has halved to approximately 750 large-car sales in the first four months of 2023. Tellingly, more than half of the vehicles reported as sold in that category (55 per cent) were electric.

While the numbers for the large-car segment remain relatively tiny, the shift to electric power is apparent in other segments.

New-car buyers in Australia bought a combined 17,234 mid-sized sedans in the under-$60,000 and over-$60,000 categories in the first four months of this year – and more than half of those were electric.

The Tesla Model 3 electric car has dominated the medium car segment, with 8839 reported sales from January to April 2023, outselling the Toyota Camry by a factor of over four to one (with 1886 deliveries), marking a stunning fall from grace for Australia's top-selling mid-size sedan for 28 of the past 29 years.