Where are Australia’s electric cars built?

The number of new electric cars in Australia has grown from half a dozen models to more than 30 in just five years.

While Australia’s early electric car offerings came from established brands such as Nissan, BMW and Mitsubishi, the development of zero emissions vehicles from companies including Tesla, MG and Hyundai has allowed more motorists to ditch petrol and diesel power.

However, when did you last stop to think about where electric cars in Australia come from?

Research compiled by Drive shows there are 32 different models of electric cars on sale in Australia today, with more than 70 variants between them.

Of the 32 electric cars in Australia, eight are made in China, Germany and South Korea, two in the UK and Japan, plus one each in France, Hungary, Austria and Belgium.

While a majority of electric cars from China are focused towards budget-conscious buyers, the cheapest German-made model – the Mercedes-Benz EQA – is priced from $78,513 plus on-road costs.

Mercedes-Benz’s EQA and EQC are two of the cheapest electric cars made in Germany, although the $328,400 EQS53 AMG has the highest starting price for an ‘entry-level’ variant.

Despite being owned by German and Japanese companies respectively, the Nissan Leaf and Mini Hatch Electric are both manufactured in the UK.

The Mazda MX-30 and Lexus UX300e are the only two electric cars currently made in Japan for Australia, despite industry giant Toyota’s heavy reliance on hybrid vehicles and plans to launch a wide range of battery-only cars in the coming years.

Read below for the full list.