[rsynnott]

> We've had BYDs and other EVs for many years in Australia, and EVs are still a luxury item

Are they very heavily tariffed? You can get electric cars made by Dacia (European), Hyundai (Korean) and BYD (Chinese) for under 20k in Ireland. That’s well under the average cost of a new car (40k); hardly luxury.

(Granted, I assume average distance driven is _way_ higher in Australia than Ireland, which may make shortish-range cars less viable.)

EDIT: Was curious, looked it up.

> The BYD Atto 1 [also known as the Seagull and Dolphin Surf in some markets] is the cheapest electric car in Australia starting from $23,990 plus on-road costs

That’s 13k euro. There is no world in which that is a luxury car.

[apublicfrog]

The Atto 1 is one of very few (maybe the only?) EVs in Australia under $40k AUD. It has a range of 200km (in best conditions) and launched about 3 weeks ago.

Whilst it may have an impact and change it, the fact remains currently EVs are significantly above a normal base model new car price in Australia and this has made them a relatively luxury item.

Also for clarity, I am stating it is a luxury item - i.e outside the spending of a normal household, not a luxury car, which has its own definitions in Australia.