Largest EV Shipment Arrives In Australia Following Increased Demand | 10 News+

Now to a mega maiden voyage for Chinese carmaker BYD's new ship.The 200 metre long monster has docked in Melbourne bringing 5 ,000 electric cars with it.The purpose -built vessel is seen as a sign of confidence in the Australian EV market as Aussie drivers embrace alternatives in the fuel crisis.

And joining us now from Melbourne is mechanical engineer Paul Marich, the founder of Car Expert Mate.Frightening is one word, impressive is another.The ship is huge, but how significant is it that we are seeing this thing?

Look, it is huge in a number of ways.So 13 stories high.I mean, the thing is, it is absolutely enormous.This shipment is one of the largest we've seen yet.BYD, it's one of the world's biggest manufacturers of cars and one of the world's biggest EV manufacturers as well.So they are targeting Australia for a lot of these models.

The ship is hard to miss.Could the scale of it be a bit of a marketing ploy to get our attention?And also, do we have the infrastructure to support this delivery?5 ,000 EVs on our streets, it's a lot.

Look last month BYD was second to Toyota and I mean that that is a big big thing for a Chinese car company to be second to one of the most established car brands in the world.It's going to be good news for consumers because while BYD is doing this the rest are going to have to follow and that should drive prices down for consumers.

Second to Toyotas.You never would have thought that we'd be saying that.Is China just blatantly capitalising here on the fuel crisis and is that the reason why these things are becoming so popular?

China pivots very quickly though, so this boat was on the water about a month ago, so they were seeing the start of the fuel crisis, they started sending the cars over, so they're trying to get ahead of this while other manufacturers are still catching up.

Are Australian drivers also racing to buy an EV before the government's FBT exemption starts to wind down?

As these cars become cheaper, consumers arethat it's a good time to get into a new car, whether it's a hybrid or an electric vehicle.But like all of these things, it's not worth making a short -term decision really quickly.If you don't have the infrastructure at home, if you're driving longer distances into the country, an EV may not be the right choice at the moment.

And Paul, I'm just going to put on my tinfoil hat here for a little while if you don't mind.Is there anything to the concerns that some people have that they might be listening in to our conversation, that these Chinese cars might be tracking us in some way?

Look, if you're worried about being tracked these days, I recommend putting your phone down and not driving any new car because virtually every new car on the market these days has some form of communication that goes back to the manufacturer and it's no different to the Chinese cars that are coming to the market.If you don't want to be tracked, I would not be buying a new car today.

Would you buy a BYD?

I would buy a BYD.It'd need to be probably the Shark, the Ute because, you know, might need to carry a couple of little things but that's the biggest concern for me.Maybe not so much with BYD and the more established Chinese brands but there's a land rush at the moment for the Australian car market and some of these brands you've never, even I've never heard of, they're going to set up, people are going to buy the cars and if they go out of business in five years time you've got a paperweight basically.

Paul, thank you for talking us through it, we appreciate it.

Thank you guys.