Australia

Announced on May 9, 2024, China-based smart EV company XPENG has expanded into Australia, through its partnership with TrueEV, an advocate for EV adoption. This also marks several "firsts” for XPENG on its road to globalization.

TrueEV will become the sole importer, distributor, and retailer of XPENG products in Australia. XPENG’s range of EVs will be brought to local consumers across Australia with branded showrooms and start-to-end customer support throughout the buying process. 

TrueEV will debut XPENG’s G6 SUV model in Australia by Q4/2024. Developed for global markets, this SUV rides on Smart Electric Platform Architecture (SEPA) 2.0 platform.

(From XPENG press release on May 9, 2024)

On May 3, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries announced that new vehicle registrations of 97,202 units in April 2024 represented an increase 18.3% over the last April. In addition to high demand for new vehicles, the increase was due to two more operation days in April than the previous year. New vehicle sales of 401,654 units in the first three months of the year represented an 14.4% increase YoY. 

Passenger car sales of 17,314 units in April represented an 14.0% increase YoY, SUV sales of 54,135 units represented a 17.6% increase, LCV sales of 21,413 units represented a 25.5% increase and MHCV sales of 4,340 units represented a 12.6% increase. Battery electric vehicles accounted for 6.4% of sales in April (9.5％ in March). The sales ratio of hybrid vehicles (HV) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHV) increased to 18.3% from 7.5% in the same month last year.

Among the companies, Toyota sales increased 72.7% YoY to 20,771 units, Ford sales increased 71.3% to 8,648 units, Mazda sales increased 5.4% to 7,301 units, Kia sales increased 7.3% to 6,653 units and Mitsubishi sales increased 19.7% to 5,314 units.

The best-selling cars in April 2024, in order of popularity, were Toyota RAV4, Ford Ranger, and Toyota HiLux.

FCAI release on May 3, 2024

On May 1, Seeing Machines Limited announced a significant generational program extension with an existing North American Tier 1 customer and OEM.

The initial program, already in production, will expand to a total of 19 distinct vehicle models being sold in North America, Europe, and China, and extend through 2032 based on the OEM’s next-generation Driver Monitoring System (DMS) solution utilizing Seeing Machines’ improved FOVIO Chip design delivering increased feature capability with reduced cost, power, and size.

This award extends to all of the OEM’s European vehicle models in support of fast-approaching Euro NCAP and European GSR (General Safety Regulation) requirements. It is scheduled to start production in 2024 with an initial estimated incremental lifetime value of USD 26 million. 

Based on Seeing Machines Limited press release