24 March

The continuing surge in popularity of Chinese cars in Australia, easily the dominant vehicles in sales in Australia, and have been for a while. Their brilliant EVs are now rushing out of salesrooms. Tesla’s Model Y is now also completely sold out here. You can still order one, but you’ll be waiting until about July on latest check, for delivery. Great European cars will also be cheaper here now, with the free trade agreement. In Europe and the UK a BMW (for example) has for some time been as common a car choice (and similar price) as a Toyota or KIA here. The Germans are really trying with EVs, but their whole business model is against them, and they’re taking big losses on them to try to buy into the market. It’s almost impossible to completely upend an industry. The Japanese aren’t really even trying. Modern cars will now be much more about software than hardware, and they’re both miles behind. Everybody is well behind Tesla there. The hardware is difficult to better already, electric motors are supremely powerful and efficient and have been for well over a century. The innovation comes more in the software, where you ‘update’ the car regularly over the air, rather than always buying new models.