Low-emission vehicles are becoming increasingly popular in Australia’s second-hand car market as motorists strive to conserve fuel.

But hybrid vehicles, rather than electric models, are proving to be in highest demand and the most resistant to price reductions.

The Australian Automotive Dealer Association and AutoGrab revealed the trends on Tuesday in used car sales figures from May, which also showed the automotive market had bounced back from a sales dip in April.

The news comes one week after new hybrid and electric vehicles sales broke records to represent almost half of all new cars sold in Australia during the month.

The latest sales report showed Australian drivers bought 221,323 second-hand vehicles during May – a rise of more than 17,700 cars compared to April.

Standard hybrid vehicles made up one in 10 used cars up to five years of age, while electric and plug-in hybrid models represented six per cent of sales.

The trend towards low-emission cars reflected consumer efforts to avoid petrol and diesel price rises caused by conflict in the Middle East, association chief executive James Voortman said.

“It’s no surprise to see hybrids performing so strongly,” he said.

“With household budgets still under pressure, many consumers are looking for ways to reduce fuel costs and hybrids offer a practical and proven solution.”

Hybrid cars were also the most likely to withstand discounting to secure a sale, the report found, and retained 93.4 per cent of their value.

By contrast, more than half of second-hand petrol and diesel vehicles were discounted before finding a buyer in May, which Mr Voortman said showed consumers were in the driver’s seat.

“The increase in discounting reflects a strong level of competition in the used vehicle market at the moment,” he said.

“Buyers are in a good position to compare options and negotiate on price.”

The report came on the same day BYD Australia revealed it had signed a three-year deal with Pickles to auction its second-hand fleet vehicles.

The agreement was another sign that Australia’s used electric vehicle market had evolved, Pickles motor vehicles general manager Chris Shaw said, and the move would make them accessible to a wider motoring audience

“We’re seeing increased confidence in used electric vehicles from both private buyers and the trade as the market develops, pricing becomes more accessible, and understanding of EV ownership continues to improve,” he said.

AAP

Swedish commercial vehicle manufacturer Scania says it will supply 91 battery electric buses to a local transport operator, in its largest order to date and one of the largest electric bus deals in the country.

Scania will supply 91 of its Fencer F1 battery electric vehicle (BEV) buses to VR Sweden, including 32 in a 4×2 configuration and 59 in a 6×2*4 configuration.

VR Sweden won the contract to provide bus services in Södertälje and Nykvarn from local public transport authority SL in 2025 and will begin operations next year. The purchase of these 91 electric buses is intended to fulfil this contract.

“The investment is an important step in the transition to electrified public transport and enables reduced local emissions, while ensuring attractive and reliable traffic for passengers as well as a good working environment for drivers and maintenance personnel,” said Anders Frykman, bus director at VR Sweden.

Each bus will feature battery capacity of 445 kilowatt-hours (kWh), with 400 kWh of usable energy and a charging time from 5 to 95 per cent of only 73 minutes.

The technical specifications provided by Scania do not state an estimated driving range, but the 73 minutes charging time is based on adding 485 kilometres per hour of charge.

The agreement signed between Scania and VR Sweden includes not only supply but also vehicle service and long-term support. Scania also already boasts production facilities and headquarters in Södertälje.

“With development and battery assembly in Södertälje, and close cooperation throughout the process, we will offer a solution that is both robust and sustainable,” said Christopher Svensson, key account manager at Scania Sweden.

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Japanese car maker Mazda has released the key specs and pricing of the CX-6e SUV, its third EV in the Australian market.

Prices for the CX-6e will start at $53,990 before on-road costs for the entry GT variants, and the top-spec Azami variant comes in at $56,990 before on-roads.

As part of the launch, the first 1,000 customers who ordered the GT variant will automatically be upgraded to the Azami variant, valued at $3,000.

Managing Director of Mazda Australia, Vinesh Bhindi, said the new pre-order campaign follows the popularity of its similar Mazda 6e offer, which saw all 300 units sell out within only two weeks.

CX-6e features a rear-mounted 190 kW motor, powered by a 78 kWh Lithium-Iron-Phosphate (LFP) battery pack. According to the preliminary specifications, this pack can deliver up to 484 km of WLTP range on a single charge and charging it from 30-80% will take around 15 minutes.

Inside, there is a large centre screen, surrounded by 256-colour ambient lighting, that floats above the dashboard.

Last month, The Driven saw an early left-hand-drive version of the car in person at a preview in Melbourne, and one of the standout features was this screen that extends towards the passenger seat, along with the high-quality materials used throughout.

In the spec sheet, Mazda states that the CX-6e includes multiple safety features, including:

• Smart Brake Support for turning across traffic with pedestrian and cyclist detection
• Rear Cross Traffic Alert
• Blind Spot Monitoring
• Emergency Brake Assist
• Lane-Keep Assist
• Driver Monitoring System

Colour-wise, there is a nightfall violet mica as well as metallic paints including Red, Crystal, Machine Grey, Grey, Blue, White, Pearl and Black.

The latest model made its global debut at the Brussels Motor Show this year and, according to the brand, adopts Mazda’s “Future + Soul + Modern” Kodo design concept.

The Mazda CX-6e is manufactured in collaboration with Chongqing Changan Automobile Company, which has multiple brands in China, including the locally available Deepal brand, which is distributed through Inchcape in Australia.

The first Mazda CX-6e deliveries in Australia are expected to start from September.

2026 Mazda CX-6e specs

GT grade, features:

• 26.45-inch central touchscreen display
• 19-inch alloy wheels
• 50-inch active driving display
• 360-degree view monitor with See-Through View
• Advanced keyless entry
• Mazda Radar Cruise Control
• Tri-zone climate control with air purification system (PM2.5 filter)
• Wireless Apple CarPlay® and Android Auto
• Auto-dimming rear-view mirror
• Powered remote tailgate with hands-free function
• Front and rear parking sensors
• Heated and ventilated front seats
• Heated steering wheel
• LED headlamps with signature illumination
• Panoramic glass roof with electric sunshade
• Premium audio system with 23 speakers
• Satellite navigation
• Wireless smartphone charger
• Black Maztex trim

Mazda CX-6e Azami adds:

• Digital exterior mirrors
• Digital interior mirror
• 21-inch alloy wheels

2026 Mazda CX-6e price list

Mazda CX-6e Model Grade	Motor & Battery	Drivetrain	MLP
GT	190kW/78 kWh	RWD	$53,990
Azami	190kW/78 kWh	RWD	$56,990

  

Option Package	Price
Warm Beige Interior Trim (available on both GT and Azami grades)	$1,000

 

There’s a common piece of wisdom among value-oriented car shoppers: Don’t buy new, buy a three-year-old car off a lease. That’s still a good idea, but according to new data from Edmunds, you may not have to wait that long. Even 2025 model year cars are getting cheap, especially if you’re looking at EVs. 

In new new blog post, Edmunds Director of Insights Ivan Drury notes that 2025-model used cars sold in the fourth quarter of last year went for $6,370 less than their average new car transaction price. That’s already substantial savings, but the numbers are even better for EV and PHEV shoppers. 

Models like the Dodge Charger Daytona and Jeep Wrangler 4XE have truly staggering discounts after less than a year on the road. The average used 2025 Charger Daytona went for $19,711 less than a new model in the same quarter, the study shows. (I have a guess as to why values are plummeting.) That means you’d pay 67% more for essentially the same car, with just a few miles on it. For the Wrangler, the discount is even steeper. Used shoppers saved $19,873 on average. 

Dodge Charger Daytonas have super-steep discounts on the used market. But based on our contributor’s nightmarish experience with his Charger, we’re not sure if it’s a good buy even with a steep discount.

Photo by: InsideEVs

By the top-line number, though, the biggest loser was the Genesis GV70 Electrified. Barely used examples offer a stunning $24,012 discount over new ones. There are more mass-market deals, too, including the last of the Toyota bZ4Xs, the Chevy Equinox EV, and the Honda Prologue.

I’m not going to crib the whole list, because you should take a look at Edmunds’ work there. But I will say that it’s a trend I’ve certainly seen for myself. As automakers have piled on incentives and special finance deals, used models have had to compete with fire sale new prices. Factor in that many of the 2025 model year cars were sold with $7,500 tax credits—which evaporated at the end of the third quarter—and you can see why the discounts are so big. 

The Equinox EV won our inaugural Breakthrough Award for its extremely affordable price. But they’re even cheaper on the used market, and I’d recommend comparing new vs. used options before pulling the trigger.

Photo by: Motor1.com

There is, of course, a catch. One underrated cost in car-buying is the interest rate on the loan, and it’s here where new cars usually significantly outperform their used counterparts. Automakers often offer discounted financing through their captive loan companies, helping to save you from rates that are higher than they were for most of the last decade.

According to Experian Data collected by U.S. News and World Report, the average super-prime customer—I.E. someone with a credit score above 781—is paying 4.88% right now. For equivalent used buyers, the figure is 7.43%.  

Assuming you put $10,000 down on a five-year loan for $40,000 car, that difference alone could account for $2,139 dollars. That’s definitely not enough to account for the level of savings here, but it’s a common reason buyers shop new rather than gently used.

But in today’s world, the EV deals are clearly on the used market. The tax credit is gone, driving up new EV prices, while buyer misgivings about battery reliability and charging keep values depressed on the used market. I don’t expect that to last long, though. Modern EV batteries just aren’t worth worrying about, and once you find a working charging solution, an used EV will be the best car you’ve ever bought.

Contact the author: Mack.Hogan@insideevs.com

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China’s advanced auto industry may be hitting some speed bumps at home, but it’s expanding overseas at warp speed. And lately it’s been a question of “when,” not “if,” those vehicles could ever come to the United States.

2026 already feels like some dominoes have begun to fall. You had the Geely Group’s strong showing at CES (and hints that a U.S. debut announcement could come in the next few years), President Donald Trump’s repeated openness to Chinese automakers setting up factories in the U.S., and now, a trade deal between Canada and China that will lower tariff barriers to Chinese EVs in America’s neighbor to the north. So where do things go from here?

The must-read morning roundup of EV and tech news.

Welcome back to Critical Materials, our morning roundup of auto industry and technology news. We’ll be diving more into the China trade deal today, along with why it’s good news for Tesla, and why this debate is caught up in the ongoing affordability crisis. Let’s dig in. 

25%: Canada’s EV Tariff Deal With China Puts The U.S., Auto Industry On Alert

Geely and Zeekr at CES 2026

Photo by: Patrick George

As we reported on Friday, the China-Canada deal is small for now—it’s capped at 49,000 cars for its first year, with expansion to 70,000 within five years. But it’s a start (or rather a restart, since it returns Canada to its pre-2023 tariff deal) to something potentially big: the growing expansion of Chinese EVs into North America. And as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney explicitly said, most of these imports will cost under $25,000 U.S. (about $35,000 CAD).

Naturally, not everyone is happy about what could be a threat to automotive jobs in North America. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, blamed the Trump administration’s strained relations with Canada, reports The Hill:

“We just got absolutely rolled in this Canada – China deal. A stark foreign policy failure with domestic economic consequences,” Schatz wrote in a post on social platform X. 

“The most basic principle in politics and geopolitics is loyalty to friends. And we weren’t just disloyal – we were hostile. So here we are,” he added.

President Donald Trump, for his part, appeared to give the deal a thumbs-up: “If you can get a deal with China, you should do that,” Trump told reporters. Other U.S. economic officials said Canada will ultimately regret the deal.

My colleague Kevin Williams has a good story about what’s at stake, and why leaders in the auto-producing parts of Canada are especially unhappy about the deal. And it brings plenty of concern among U.S. auto industry observers as well. From the Associated Press:

Chinese automakers will have to meet standards required for the Canadian auto market for the latest trade arrangement to be successful—standards that are similar to those in the U.S.—which is likely to incentivize Chinese auto manufacturing investment in Canada.

They’ll also have to establish which segment of the market they are targeting there: Higher-end vehicles, or less-expensive ones that sell at higher volumes.

Regardless, “It brings it home to what is needed to compete globally,” said Mark Wakefield, global automotive market lead at AlixPartners. The firm predicts Chinese brands will account for 30% of the global market by 2030.

“They’ve already started in Europe. They started in South America. Now Mexico and Canada,” Wakefield said. American carmakers “don’t want to end up as a Brazil with your ethanol-based cars that aren’t sellable anywhere else in the world and … like Britain or Australia that used to matter in the auto world, and no longer really matter.”

Emphasis mine above, because that is indeed a scary outcome for the U.S. auto industry.

Then again, if it brings more affordable hybrid and zero-emission options to North America—and the way things are potentially going, the U.S. included—and is that such a bad thing? Ultimately, North Americans will have to make a choice: affordability or loyalty to local production.

Unless, of course, our automakers can meet people halfway and get that $50,000 average new car price down considerably.

50%: The Canada-China Trade Deal Is Good News For Tesla

2026 Tesla Model 3 Standard

Photo by: Tesla

Tesla had a bad year in Canada in 2025, with sales dropping nearly 64% amid the U.S. trade war and CEO Elon Musk’s multiple controversies. But the China trade deal could be good news for the electric automaker: it builds a ton of cars in China, including ones it exports to Canada (unlike the U.S.)
And now, those just got a whole lot cheaper, potentially. Here’s Reuters with more:

While many Chinese automakers will be keen to seize the opportunity as they expand exports, Tesla has an advantage as it in 2023 already equipped its Shanghai plant, its biggest and most cost-efficient factory globally, to build and export a Canada-specific version of its Model Y.

The U.S. automaker had that same year started shipping the car from Shanghai to Canada, boosting Canadian imports of automobiles from China to its largest port, Vancouver, by 460% year over year to 44,356 in 2023.

But it was forced to stop in 2024 and switched to shipping from its U.S. and Berlin factories after Ottawa imposed 100% tariffs, citing a wish to counter what they called China’s intentional state-directed policy of overcapacity.

“This new agreement could allow resumption of those exports rather quickly,” said Sam Fiorani, vice president of research firm AutoForecast Solutions.

Now, to see if Canadians actually line up to buy those cars.

75%: Affordability Anxiety Will Define 2026’s Car Market

Photo by: Patrick George

But all of this, I’d argue, isn’t even a technology issue or a geopolitical one: it’s an affordability issue. The appeal of Chinese imports is that they’re good and they’re cheap—a combination that feels in short supply in the North American car market.

According to Automotive News, affordability anxiety was the overwhelming vibe at the 2026 Detroit Auto Show. And while carmakers may breathe a sigh of relief that they’re no longer under a regulatory gun to make tons of EVs now that fuel economy requirements have been eased, they can’t lean on super-expensive gas trucks to save the day like they used to:

“What’s holding the market back is certainly affordability and really the lack of low-priced vehicles,” said Michael Robinet, executive director of automotive consulting at S&P Global Mobility. “Not only in the United States, but around the world, this is a problem.”

Sen. Bernie Moreno, a former car dealer and member of the committee working to reschedule testimony from the Detroit 3 CEOs, said the Trump administration is easing regulations to help bring down vehicle costs and that automakers also have a role to play. The government is rolling back emissions standards and in September eliminated a $7,500 tax credit that had greatly fueled EV demand.

It now takes about 36 weeks of median income to buy an average new vehicle, according to Cox Automotive data. That’s down from 42 weeks three years ago but not necessarily a sign affordability has significantly improved, Cox Executive Analyst Erin Keating said.

“Even with affordable vehicles out there, fewer buyers are buying. The consensus is that this shift isn’t temporary. … That’s one reason dealer sentiment reflects concern. The missing customers aren’t sidelined. They’re essentially excluded.”

So how do they plan to meet the moment? According to that story, Jeep and Ram parent company Stellantis is preparing more models priced under $40,000 and even $30,000 (though I’ll believe the latter when I see it) and even Ford said it might consider making sedans again after canceling all of them in 2020.

One bright spot for EV fans: the falling costs of batteries should make electric power more affordable. But clearly, the demand is there for new cars that won’t break the bank. And if the familiar automakers won’t deliver, it seems China Inc. is ready to.

100%: How Much Does It Matter To You Where Your Car Is Made?

Photo by: Zeekr

I have owned Toyotas made in the United States, a Chevrolet and a Mazda made in Mexico, and a Kia made in South Korea (that’s now made in Georgia instead), among other things. I can’t say that production origin means all that much to me in a globalized world.

So is that a priority for you when you buy a car? Sound off in the comments. 

Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com

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