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Non-video story: https://thedriven.io/2026/09/16/australias-cheapest-new-car-is-now-an-electric-car-and-byds-stunning-move-will-change-the-conversation-about-ev

Non-video story: https://thedriven.io/2026/09/16/australias-cheapest-new-car-is-now-an-electric-car-and-byds-stunning-move-will-change-the-conversation-about-evs/ https://thedriven.io/2026/09/16/australias-cheapest-new-car-... TL;DR: AUD 19,900 driveway (means taxes, registration etc included), or about US$14k. The main limitation is the 220 km (135 mi) range, which is fine for a city runabout but not great for road tripping.

rwbt 13d ago
I'd love a city run around car inclusive of all taxes for $15k or less.
- hdgvhicv 13d ago
  I bought a 4 year old leaf with 25k on the clock in May for £7k ($10k). Get about 150 miles on a full charge. I’d rather a little more as I tend to do 90 a day, so if it doesn’t charge offpeak overnight for some reason I’m left with a manual recharge during the day. But I do a lot of miles (25k a year) The main downside on long trips is the DC is chamedo, not standard ccs, so there are fewer locations and they are sometimes broken or full.
Nursie 13d ago
It’s pretty tiny too, so not a road trip car IMHO. That said, coupled with home solar to power it, this is a very cheap way to get on the road and I will likely go this direction in future - one of these for the city and something a bit bigger/more rugged to go bush once in a while.
- rightnutwingjob 13d ago
  $20k for the car plus $5k for roof top solar, plus $500,000 for the house to put it on. Or: a $2000 Corolla and the rental home you’re already in.
  - luipugs 13d ago
    $500,000? That's just the price for the garage.
  - dbetteridge 13d ago
    500k doesn't get you much house in Australia these days, try double that.
  - andrew_lettuce 13d ago
    That's great if you already have a clean, high mileage Corolla or Accord, but good luck finding one for 2k
    - rightnutwingjob 12d ago
      You’re worried I missed the target price for the car by a couple of grand. But not that I was off on the price of a houses by a factor of three. You can get a run down two bedroom weatherboard round the corner from my two bedroom rental unit for around the $1.2 million mark. BARGAIN!
  - Nursie 13d ago
    I’m not in a rental home, and wouldn’t be anyway. I want solar and a battery (don’t have it yet, it’s on the list) to cut my energy bills and guard against power cuts anyway. So neither of these things is an ‘extra’ expense for me getting a small EV. There are a total of 5 corollas available in Australia for $2k or less. Each one is ratty, beat up and 19+ years old, I wouldn’t want to chance taking any of them on the freeway, and you’d still have to fuel them.
    - rightnutwingjob 12d ago
      No one cares about you. You’re good mate, you’re rich. Choose a different car for under $5000 then. It’ll still be cheaper than having to buy a new car, plus house, plus solar & battery. Also won’t work for anyone living in a unit / flat / appartment, whether they rent or own.
- defrost 13d ago
  > a bit bigger/more rugged to go bush once in a while. Depends whether you're taking the Birdsville track or the Bibbulmun track really. The shorter one can be done a on a red postie bike, the longer one won't even need that :-)
  - Nursie 13d ago
    Been thinking more along the lines of the Munda-biddy actually :) But I haven’t got on my bike for a few years now because at the moment all my spare energy goes on managing our plot. There’s always something needs moving, sawing, building, repairing, digging… So I’ve gone from having a (pudgy) cyclist’s physique with very strong calves to more of a farmer’s build with bigger arm and shoulder muscles than I’ve ever had before and a big ‘ol belly. But in all seriousness I also like to go remote once in a while and access national parks. I’m not going to be hooning it round destroying dunes, but getting to beautiful places like Cape Peron is tough without a the right vehicle.
    - defrost 13d ago
      I've been through the Bungles on a push bike - so that's a thing, but yeah, Cape Peron would be a hard slog without a boat or vehicle that can push across deep sand - water would be a tough carry. > without the right vehicle A loong time ago (late 1970s) I got to traverse the horizontal falls a couple of time in a home made sea kayak after being dropped off "nearby" (and later picked up again) by an old pearling lugger .. pretty low carbon effort that one, just a lot of paddling (and fishing, and digging for fresh water, and dodging the odd shark and salty croc).
      - Nursie 12d ago
        Nice, I have great respect but also a level of “WTF” when encountering cyclists in the deep wilds, especially in the heat! Passed an old guy on a pushbike with a trailer on the nullabor in 2010 and just thought “wow, that’s commitment”
Raed667 13d ago
That's an insane price and the range is fine for the daily needs of the large majority of people. €12k in France (where i am) can't get you any new car, even the cheapest ICE Dacia is more expensive than that now.
- chvid 13d ago
  The BYD is sold in Europe but there is higher VAT and a special EU Chinese car import tax - so these cars are about 20k euro. There is also the Renault Twingo which is in the same class.
  - Raed667 13d ago
    I checked the Twingo and it is starting at €16k and an Opel Corsa (without any options) is more than €19k
  - pantalaimon 13d ago
    The tax is only on electric cars, vehicles with a combustion engine are excempt - that's why you see all those ads for BYD Hybrids now.
    - drcongo 12d ago
      Elsewhere in the thread you claim there are no BYD cars in the EU, yet here you're an expert on the taxes BYD pays in the EU.
- Nursie 13d ago
  Australia doesn’t tariff Chinese car imports, on account of no longer having any car industry of our own to defend. That said we do still have a hefty “luxury car tax” for anything over $80k, which is a hangover from when there was an industry here. The government aren’t going to lift that any time soon. Its current function is to select for expensive trucks over expensive sedans, because trucks are “commercial” and exempt, making our roads less safe overall. Thanks government.
  - 13d ago
burnt-resistor 12d ago
Range isn't a big issue in recent generation BYD vehicles that support FLASH Charging in areas that have 1.5MW chargers.
- beAbU 12d ago
  I doubt a $15k econobox ev is going to support 1.5MW charging. Also, I think you are underestimating the sheer size and desolate spreaded-outness of Australia.
  - burnt-resistor 11d ago
    For now, flash charging is in China, Europe, UK, and Malaysia (soon). The chargers actually have battery packs in them because the charging current is almost always too much to be supplied by the grid directly.

rwbt 13d ago

I'd love a city run around car inclusive of all taxes for $15k or less.

hdgvhicv 13d ago
I bought a 4 year old leaf with 25k on the clock in May for £7k ($10k). Get about 150 miles on a full charge. I’d rather a little more as I tend to do 90 a day, so if it doesn’t charge offpeak overnight for some reason I’m left with a manual recharge during the day. But I do a lot of miles (25k a year) The main downside on long trips is the DC is chamedo, not standard ccs, so there are fewer locations and they are sometimes broken or full.

Nursie 13d ago

It’s pretty tiny too, so not a road trip car IMHO. That said, coupled with home solar to power it, this is a very cheap way to get on the road and I will likely go this direction in future - one of these for the city and something a bit bigger/more rugged to go bush once in a while.

rightnutwingjob 13d ago
$20k for the car plus $5k for roof top solar, plus $500,000 for the house to put it on. Or: a $2000 Corolla and the rental home you’re already in.
- luipugs 13d ago
  $500,000? That's just the price for the garage.
- dbetteridge 13d ago
  500k doesn't get you much house in Australia these days, try double that.
- andrew_lettuce 13d ago
  That's great if you already have a clean, high mileage Corolla or Accord, but good luck finding one for 2k
  - rightnutwingjob 12d ago
    You’re worried I missed the target price for the car by a couple of grand. But not that I was off on the price of a houses by a factor of three. You can get a run down two bedroom weatherboard round the corner from my two bedroom rental unit for around the $1.2 million mark. BARGAIN!
- Nursie 13d ago
  I’m not in a rental home, and wouldn’t be anyway. I want solar and a battery (don’t have it yet, it’s on the list) to cut my energy bills and guard against power cuts anyway. So neither of these things is an ‘extra’ expense for me getting a small EV. There are a total of 5 corollas available in Australia for $2k or less. Each one is ratty, beat up and 19+ years old, I wouldn’t want to chance taking any of them on the freeway, and you’d still have to fuel them.
  - rightnutwingjob 12d ago
    No one cares about you. You’re good mate, you’re rich. Choose a different car for under $5000 then. It’ll still be cheaper than having to buy a new car, plus house, plus solar & battery. Also won’t work for anyone living in a unit / flat / appartment, whether they rent or own.
defrost 13d ago
> a bit bigger/more rugged to go bush once in a while. Depends whether you're taking the Birdsville track or the Bibbulmun track really. The shorter one can be done a on a red postie bike, the longer one won't even need that :-)
- Nursie 13d ago
  Been thinking more along the lines of the Munda-biddy actually :) But I haven’t got on my bike for a few years now because at the moment all my spare energy goes on managing our plot. There’s always something needs moving, sawing, building, repairing, digging… So I’ve gone from having a (pudgy) cyclist’s physique with very strong calves to more of a farmer’s build with bigger arm and shoulder muscles than I’ve ever had before and a big ‘ol belly. But in all seriousness I also like to go remote once in a while and access national parks. I’m not going to be hooning it round destroying dunes, but getting to beautiful places like Cape Peron is tough without a the right vehicle.
  - defrost 13d ago
    I've been through the Bungles on a push bike - so that's a thing, but yeah, Cape Peron would be a hard slog without a boat or vehicle that can push across deep sand - water would be a tough carry. > without the right vehicle A loong time ago (late 1970s) I got to traverse the horizontal falls a couple of time in a home made sea kayak after being dropped off "nearby" (and later picked up again) by an old pearling lugger .. pretty low carbon effort that one, just a lot of paddling (and fishing, and digging for fresh water, and dodging the odd shark and salty croc).
    - Nursie 12d ago
      Nice, I have great respect but also a level of “WTF” when encountering cyclists in the deep wilds, especially in the heat! Passed an old guy on a pushbike with a trailer on the nullabor in 2010 and just thought “wow, that’s commitment”

Raed667 13d ago

That's an insane price and the range is fine for the daily needs of the large majority of people. €12k in France (where i am) can't get you any new car, even the cheapest ICE Dacia is more expensive than that now.

chvid 13d ago
The BYD is sold in Europe but there is higher VAT and a special EU Chinese car import tax - so these cars are about 20k euro. There is also the Renault Twingo which is in the same class.
- Raed667 13d ago
  I checked the Twingo and it is starting at €16k and an Opel Corsa (without any options) is more than €19k
- pantalaimon 13d ago
  The tax is only on electric cars, vehicles with a combustion engine are excempt - that's why you see all those ads for BYD Hybrids now.
  - drcongo 12d ago
    Elsewhere in the thread you claim there are no BYD cars in the EU, yet here you're an expert on the taxes BYD pays in the EU.
Nursie 13d ago
Australia doesn’t tariff Chinese car imports, on account of no longer having any car industry of our own to defend. That said we do still have a hefty “luxury car tax” for anything over $80k, which is a hangover from when there was an industry here. The government aren’t going to lift that any time soon. Its current function is to select for expensive trucks over expensive sedans, because trucks are “commercial” and exempt, making our roads less safe overall. Thanks government.
- 13d ago

burnt-resistor 12d ago

Range isn't a big issue in recent generation BYD vehicles that support FLASH Charging in areas that have 1.5MW chargers.

beAbU 12d ago
I doubt a $15k econobox ev is going to support 1.5MW charging. Also, I think you are underestimating the sheer size and desolate spreaded-outness of Australia.
- burnt-resistor 11d ago
  For now, flash charging is in China, Europe, UK, and Malaysia (soon). The chargers actually have battery packs in them because the charging current is almost always too much to be supplied by the grid directly.