TrueGreen Mobility will bring three (yes, THREE) sub-$35,000 electric vehicles to Australia in the coming months in what can only be described as a huge win for consumers and the EV market as a whole.
On Monday, CEO Luke Todd called upon electric vehicle manufacturers to meet Australia’s “significant pent-up demand” for affordable EVs, rather than waiting for the government to eventually incentivise it.
“I’m growing a bit tired of automotive CEOs saying they’re not sending their vehicles to Australia because there are no subsidies,” he told The Driven.
“You shouldn’t need a subsidy. If the car’s good enough and it’s at the right price, it’ll sell itself. It a bit of a call to arms.”
Considering Australia still has no federal incentives for electric vehicle owners, Todd is probably on the right track here.
“We’ve been strategically waiting for the right time to come on the market,” he said.
“We are two leading Australian companies, including a leading EV charging company in Australia, connecting two of the biggest dots of how to get EVs on the road.”
TrueGreen Mobility revealed on Monday that orders for BYD’s T3 electric van will be open from July, with a price that comes in at just under $35,000 excluding on-road costs.
The T3 is equipped with a 64kWh battery, which offers approximately 300km in range, and will begin deliveries in September for Australian consumers.
The van will be the first of three BYD vehicles entering the Australian market this year as part of TrueGreen Mobility’s exclusive distribution deal with the Chinese manufacturer.
Following the release of the T3, two more sub-$35,000 passenger vehicles will be released in Australia – the EA1 and the Yuan Plus.
The EA1, which we heard about earlier this year, is a sleek Volkswagen Golf-sized hatchback designed by former Audi design chief Wolfgang Egger.
It will be priced at approximately $35,000 – making it the cheapest EV in Australia by a country mile – and boasts a range of nearly 500km, according to TrueGreen Mobility.
But if your driving needs fall somewhere in between a hatchback and a fully-fledged van, you’re in luck because the third model entering the Australian market is a yet-to-be-revealed compact SUV.
Although we’re yet to see the Yuan plus, Todd asserted to The Driven that customers will be “astounded” when they eventually unveil the new model.
“We have what we believe is a more practical more high quality vehicle” than the Tesla Model 3, Todd told The Driven.
TrueGreen Mobility sees the government’s continual inaction surrounding electric vehicle uptake in Australia and has simply decided to stop waiting around for somebody else to make the change.
“So some encouraging [government] messaging around EV uptake would be welcome. But I sit very differently to other CEOs,” Todd said.
“[Electric vehicles are] more reliable, better for the environment, better for the community and range anxiety or any of those earlier arguments have now dissipated. The only question now is ‘why not?’”
At this point, anything that brings more diversity and competition in the Australian EV market is a good thing for consumers.