Hyundai Australia Electric vehicle (EV) orders rose a staggering 355 percent in March 2026 as motorists across the country faced record prices for gasoline and diesel.
In a statement, Hyundai Australia said orders for its electric vehicle range – which includes the urban Inster, small Kona Electric, mid-size SUV Ioniq 5 and new mid-size SUV Elexio – jumped from 228 in February to 1037 last month.
Electric vehicles now account for 20 percent of all Hyundai orders, compared to less than three percent before March 2026.
Electric vehicle deliveries in Australia rose 88.9 percent year-on-year in March, reaching a record 14.6 percent market share.
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The increase in demand has resulted in Hyundai making more inventory available to local dealers to ensure little or no wait time for customers, a spokesman said Daily Sparkz Due to strong factory support, shipments take less time to arrive.
“We are targeting a 70 per cent increase in electric vehicle orders for the second quarter (April-June) compared to the first quarter (January-March),” Hyundai Motor Company Australia sales manager David Rodda said in a statement.
Hyundai says it has secured a 158 percent increase in electric vehicle supply for the second quarter, with 1265 Kona Electrics (up 315 percent compared to the first quarter), 1180 Elexios (up 57 percent), 255 Insters (up 204 percent) and 150 Ioniq 5s (up 56 percent).
The vehicles will arrive from May, Mr Rodda said, adding: “We are confident of receiving equally strong support from the factory for the rest of the year.”
The Kona Electric was the brand’s best-selling electric vehicle in the first three months of the year with 366 sales, including 236 in March alone, although it still lags behind the 563 examples sold at the same point in 2025.
The Ioniq 6 – which has an updated model hitting local showrooms soon – and the Ioniq 5 posted lower numbers year to date, down 54.5 percent and 61.4 percent, respectively.
The newly launched Elexio was not on sale last year, so its unit numbers cannot be objectively compared; similarly, only a handful of Insters were delivered in March 2025.
Hyundai’s push comes after BYD, which sells hybrid and electric models, tripled its usual vehicle shipments to Australia with an order of 30,000 units to keep up with rising demand by the end of June 2026.
In February, BYD was sixth in sales behind Hyundai, but in March overtook the Korean automaker to its highest ranking ever, third, behind Toyota and second-place Kia.
Like BYD, Hyundai also offers an extensive hybrid range and saw a 30 percent increase in hybrid orders from February to March, with 57 percent of March orders being hybrid models, which it said was the highest proportion to date.
Overall, Kia and Hyundai sales rose 4.5 percent year-to-date, with the brands in third and fifth place.
In March, record petrol prices surpassed sales of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles in Australia for the first time than petrol cars, with the Tesla Model Y the best-selling electric vehicle and the third most popular vehicle overall.
The predominantly diesel-powered Ford Ranger was still the best seller in March. Ford tried to counter rising fuel prices with a $4,000 fuel card offer in April and a $10,000 price cut on its Ranger PHEV (plug-in hybrid) to avoid a potential drop in May.
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