'It's going to get amazing': Polestar Australia boss says influx of new Chinese electric car brands, like Deepal, Leapmotor, XPeng and more will shake up the market

The influx of new automotive brands coming to Australia, largely from China, is going to cause serious upheaval in the new-vehicle market, according to the boss of one of Australia’s key EV brands.

A number of new entrants have either launched in recent months, or plan to launch in the New Year, muscling in on what is already a crowded new-car market.

Fresh brands set to hit our shores soon include Leapmotor, Zeekr, Deepal, Skywell, Geely, JAC, Jaecoo, XPeng, and GAC/Aion.

The incoming marques are all vying for a slice of Australia’s market that usually sits at over one million sales annually.

Polestar Australia Managing Director Scott Maynard said the new brands will shake up the market, but it will be interesting to watch.

“Grab some popcorn, it'll be super exciting,” he said at the Polestar 4 launch recently.

“So it'll be fascinating to see who can muscle in and displace some of the existing players. It'll be interesting to see who burns bright, burns out and disappears backwards. It'll be fascinating to see how it plays.”

He said there could be some clear benefits from the influx of largely EV focussed brands to Australia.

“If it electrifies the Australian national vehicle fleet, then that's good in a way. Not all electric cars are necessarily green, but it's definitely a step in the right direction. And if it then forces an uptick in public charging infrastructure and all of those other little bits and pieces, yep, good as well.”

Maynard said Polestar holds a unique place in the Australian market, adding the vast majority of the new entrants are chasing a different EV buyer to that of the Chinese-Swedish brand.

“Most of those entrants seem to be playing in the volume market. They all seem to be on a quest for world domination. They're all trying to beat each other to outright share and volume, and that's not where we're trying to play.

“So we were operating in a completely different space, and I'm proud of the fact that that's where we sit. But in that sub-70k bracket, it's going to get amazing.”

Some of the new marques launching soon share space with Polestar and Volvo under the massive Geely Holdings umbrella, including Zeekr and Geely, while Smart - a collaboration between Geely and Mercedes-Benz - also launched recently.

Maynard said there was healthy competition between the Geely brands, but added Polestar was unique in the group.

“Each of the brands have their own unique persona, their own identity, and so I wouldn't say that we compete, and certainly not ferociously. We eye each other off, I suppose. But we're proud of our position, and we consider our position quite unique to that of any of the other members of the group. And so you wouldn't compare ourselves in terms of volume, share, or any of those measures.”

Clarifying his earlier comment that “not all electric cars are necessarily green”, Maynard said he was highlighting how in the electrified vehicle space, “there's different shades of green”, specifically when it comes to servicing batteries.

“You put an eight-year warranty on the battery, and people assume that it lasts eight-and-a-half years. But of course, studies show that it lasts significantly longer than that.”

Maynard added that Polestar batteries are easily serviced, some other brands are less so.

“Our battery is still able to have repairs performed on it, lid off fashion. So the lid comes off the battery, you can replace an individual cell, whereas more and more of the EV brands running now have a battery that has a series of blades that are all glued together. That glue is vicious stuff, because it forms an integral part of the car, it stops the car from falling in half.

“And those batteries are infinitely harder to recycle and are not repairable. They are replaced as a single unit, whereas ours can be serviced so that means that cost of repair is pitched against cost of replacement. You can extend the life if you can replace individual components inside it, and also, at the end of life, you can take individual pieces out of it, keep the shell, do all of those sorts of things. That's if you don't choose to turn it into an electricity storage component or something.”

While Maynard didn’t mention any other brands by name, it could be seen as a swipe at Chinese giant BYD, which refers to its battery system as ‘Blade’.