Market Insight: Electrification zaps SUVs

SUVs have long held top spot in the vehicle of choice for Australians but since outselling the passenger car genre in 2017 as the most popular set of four wheels in the garage, another change is creeping into our vehicle preferences.

The collision of strengthening confidence in the electric vehicle (EV) market and EVs in general, high petrol prices and the promise of more attractive and clean electrified models poised for the Australian showrooms has accelerated the national interest in electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) SUVs.

Ostensibly, SUVs and EVs have a difficult time in the same sentence. SUVs are supposed to be go-anywhere, spacious and tow-friendly motoring-holiday vessels with as unbridled a horizon as the view from the windscreen. EVs tend to be more tethered, primarily to a charging station.

But in less than four years, sales of SUVs with full electric and PHEV (which unlike hybrids, have the ability to operate in a dedicated EV mode) drivetrains have boomed.

In 2018, Australia sold a modest 690 SUVs driven by a full-electric or PHEV drivetrain (by comparison, in the same year, 1600 hybrid SUVs found buyers), but by 2021, that figure had soared to 6500, an 89.4 per cent increase.

This year the market welcomed new players and the audience jumped again, with year-to-date October figures showing a 96 per cent boom compared with 2018, amassing 16,836 deliveries. 

By the end of this year, EV and PHEV SUVs are expected to top about 20,200 sales, up 96.6 per cent on just four years ago.

In the same period from 2018, hybrid SUVs have also risen well above the growth in petrol and diesel SUVs with 53,700 sals expected this calendar year, up 97 per cent in the four years.

One look through the list of new vehicles and it is easy to see where all this SUV action is coming from. Although some models may not perfectly define SUVs (many are for want of another word, hatchbacks, with even crossover being a generous term) there is a heap to choose from and more coming.

Consider that during the past 12 months alone, Australia has added SUVs such as the BYD Atto 3, BMW iX and iX3, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Hyundai Santa Fe hybrid, Genesis GV60 and E-GV70; Tesla Model Y, new MG ZS, new Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, Kia EV6, new Kia Niro (hybrid and EV), Kia Sorento (hybrid and PHEV) and Toyota Corolla Cross hybrid.

These build on ongoing sales interest in models including the Audi e-Tron; BMW X3 and X5 PHEV, Lexus NX450h+ PHEV and UX300e, Mercedes EQA, EQB and EQC, MG HS PHEV, Mazda MX-30, Peugeot 3008 PHEV, Volvo XC40, XC60 and XC90,

At the same time as the SUV category has become a new sales battleground for a new range of drivetrains, the crown worn by many of the traditional diesel and petrol models have slipped.

Diesel SUV sales are a bellwether for the segment but have been nibbled at by the PHEV and even EV brigade. Sales are down a modest 10 per cent on 2018.

The petrol SUVs in the medium and large segments have been hit harder, much attributed to the strong fuel prices that have made buyers consider PHEVs, EVs and hybrids. However, small SUVs remain a petrol stronghold because of the relatively low purchase price.

Hybrid SUVs have shared the astronomical ride of the PHEVs and EVs. Since 2018, hybrid SUV sales are up 97 per cent and this year are expected to hit almost 54,000 units, a far cry from the 2018 figure of 1600 units.

And we’ve only just begun. More EV and PHEV (and indeed, thanks to Toyota, more hybrids) models are expected over the next year and into the 2030s.

It really is a time to consider an electric – or electrified – car, even if you still love the great outdoors.