Times Five

Damien O’Carroll meets the five best-selling cars being plugged into the wall so far this year.

Tesla Model 3 – 419

The current king of the EV segment, the Model 3 also became the first ever EV to punch its way into the top 10 passenger cars for last month.

In fact, if you take out a big chunk of rental deliveries from Toyota, the Model 3 was the top selling private passenger car (not counting utes) for the month. While utes and SUVs still dominate the market, this is still an impressive achievement even against declining sales in the traditional passenger car segment.

Just wait until that Model Y small SUV lands, then . . .

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV – 372

Without the Outlander, PHEV sales would be almost non-existent.

The Outlander PHEV has two very strong selling points that are no doubt elevating it beyond every other PHEV and most BEVs as well – it is an SUV and is priced the same as a petrol or diesel model.

Mitsubishi has been doing some good deals on the Outlander PHEV and with its recently increased allelectric range of a real world 30km or so (Mitsubishi claims a lab-tested range of 55km) being more than the average daily commute, the Outlander is an appealing package.

Hyundai Kona Electric – 323

Hyundai’s small electric SUV was – until the Tesla Model 3’s recordsetting month – the undisputed sales leader in new EVs in New Zealand.

Interestingly, the Tesla’s big month had no adverse effect on the Kona’s sales figures – in fact it had its highest monthly sales of the year, with 56 sold.

Again, being a small SUV is a huge advantage for the Kona, as can be seen when you compare its sales with the other Hyundai EV that makes this list, the Ioniq, which has sold less than half the Kona’s numbers so far this year.

Hyundai Ioniq – 125

Hyundai’s first EV still sells decently within the segment, but as mentioned, is still healthily outsold by its Kona sibling.

Still, the Ioniq is unique in that it also offers the choice of a straight hybrid and a PHEV version, both of which actually sell in significantly smaller numbers than the pureelectric version (41 for the hybrid and 49 for the PHEV so far this year).

This is arguably more a reflection of the dwindling demand for traditional passenger cars than anything particularly against the Ioniq in any of its forms though.

Volkswagen e-Golf – 99

Volkswagen has taken a stealthy approach to its only all-electric offering in New Zealand, no doubt quietly biding its time until the recently revealed ID.3 all-new ground-up EV design.

The e-Golf’s 220km real world range is limited compared to that of Tesla (that starts at $5500 more than the VW), but its biggest advantage is that it is essentially still a Golf to look at, and more importantly, it is a Golf to drive.

Sure, it is noticeably heavier, but still retains the traditionally engaging handling the Golf is revered for.