A dramatic drop in demand has pushed EV prices to nearly half of what they were at the start of this year.
This has been good news for customers but not for businesses — dealers have had an oversupply of EVs as sales slowed.
New EV owner Ross McDougall told 1News prices earlier this year were beyond his budget.
"Once the price stepped down, it actually stated to make a lot of financial sense."
Reporter Sam Olley looks at the three reasons why and how long the cost cutting will last. (Source: 1News)
This time last year, more than 17,000 new battery powered EVs had been sold.
However, just 5519 had sold to the end of November 2024.
"There's definitely some hurt right through the industry," Brendan Foot Supersite director Matthew Foot said.
Dealers are blaming 'the three Rs' — recession, road user charges coming in, and no more clean car rebate.
The country edged out of recession in June, while EVs and plug-in hybrid EVs have had to pay road user charges since April.
The clean car discount, meanwhile, ended in December last year.
Falling demand is pushing down prices so much, many EVs are now cheaper than with the rebate.
"Distributors have been forced to discount them to clear out their stocks," Motor Industry chief executive Aimee Wiley explained.
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"The price drop's up to probably 40% difference," Foot said.
"We've seen certain manufacturers come to the market this year and cut their tails, cut their losses and put out cars that, you know, are thousands and thousands below their cost — simply because the cost of holding those cars was so significant," EV City director David Boot said.
