An electric car company boss has suggested many ute drivers in Australia aren’t even tradies and are simply buying them to avoid paying tax.
The Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux, mainly sold as diesels, consistently top the monthly car sales charts.
But Scott Maynard, the managing director of Polestar Australia, said this had more to do with fringe benefits tax (FBT) exemptions than the fact that drivers needed them for tradie purposes.
‘I’m a tradie – I started out as a mechanic and I’m entirely on their side. However, we now see vehicles that are akin to dual-cab utes make up three of the five top-selling models for the first half of the year,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘It is to the point now where we’ve got more than one-and-a-half times the number of utes being registered than we do the number of tradespeople that are registered.
‘And when I say tradespeople, I include all of them, including trades that wouldn’t normally use a ute as a tool of trade.’
Light commercial vehicles are exempt from fringe benefits tax if they are used for work, including single and dual-cab utes that are used for limited private needs.
‘My point is I think the tax advantage afforded to those vehicles are now being picked up by people who don’t use them as tools of trade but simply utilise the fact they escape the tax that other vehicles pay,’ he said.
The sales boss of an electric car company has suggested many ute drivers in Australia aren’t even tradies and were simply buying them to avoid paying tax (pictured is a Ford Ranger ute)
Toyota has joined the gigantic American pick-up truck segment in Australia, with the Tundra taking on the Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado and RAM 1500
‘The fringe benefits tax and luxury car tax benefits afforded to those vehicles have been going for such a long time now that the industries are now bent towards that and produce more and more variants that you would have to say are no longer considered tools of trade.
‘For tradespeople, buying these vehicles to do their job, absolutely, my heart and soul goes out to them.’
Australia’s ute market is set to get even more overcrowded with Kia taking orders for the Tasman and MG adding the U9 to its range.
Toyota has joined the gigantic American-pick-up truck segment in Australia, with the Tundra taking on the Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado and RAM 1500.
Then there are tough four-wheel drives, including the perennially popular Toyota LandCruiser, with Mr Maynard suggesting many SUV buyers just wanted to feel safe.
‘So many of those customers are not necessarily buying those cars for their off-road ability per se but rather for what is perceived as a high level of safety that comes with a vehicle of that style rather than a traditional passenger vehicle,’ he said.
EV incentives
Labor’s landslide re-election could help EV sales in coming years with Anthony Albanese’s Labor government removing the requirement for employers to pay FBT if they provide an EV to a staff member that sits under the $91,387 luxury car tax threshold for fuel-efficient vehicles.
Labor in its first term also introduced a novated lease scheme allowing EV owners to deduct the total financing and running costs of their car from their taxable income via salary sacrificing – a policy the defeated former Liberal leader Peter Dutton had vowed to scrap during the election campaign.
Then there are tough four-wheel drives, including the perennially popular Toyota LandCruiser
Despite those sweeteners, electric vehicles only make up 7.7 per cent of the Australian car market even with 100 EVs now available.
‘Sadly, I don’t see it tripling in the next four years – I’d love to be surprised by that,’ Mr Maynard said.
‘What we have seen, so far this year, is a glacially slow ratcheting up of share so we’ve seen the share of electric vehicles rise month-on-month through 2025.
‘It’s moving in the right direction but it’s not advancing at pace.’
The government’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard, which came into force on July 1, is designed to reduce average new car fleet carbon emissions by 59 per cent by 2029.
Car companies that sold more electric cars would get credits while manufacturers that relied on selling too many larger petrol and diesel cars would pay penalties.
‘I don’t have a political bias here but the return of the incumbent government on its commitment to hold its line on the NVES despite that significant opposition is definitely a shot in the arm,’ he said. ‘It’s a step in the right direction.’
Scott Maynard, the managing director of Polestar Australia, said the popularity of utes had more to do with fringe benefits tax (FBT) exemptions than the fact that drivers needed them for tradie purposes
Mr Maynard disputed a suggestion from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries that this new scheme’s credits and penalties would reduce the price of a Tesla Model Y by $15,390 and push up the price of Ranger ute by $6,150.
‘I don’t see the price of EVs just falling substantially just based on the NVES program because the price of producing electric vehicles is still a build-up of its production costs,’ he said.
‘Any reduction in sale prices is more likely to be powered by efficiencies in production and the utilisation of technology, not simply by a scheme that was worked up to shift the mix of vehicles and their drive lines sold in Australia.’
Polestar last year joined Tesla in quitting the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries to join with the Electric Vehicle Council, which is more in favour of the NVES.
Mr Maynard suggested many car manufacturers hated new rules to reduce carbon emissions because it was easier for them to keep selling outdated utes and SUVs.
‘They’re resistant to change in this market, perhaps driven by that commercial reality,’ he said.
‘And the fact that it’s backed by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries is just disappointing but it’s not progressive and it’s not indicative of what the market’s demanding now.’
Utes still dominating sales
The new Tesla Model Y, with 3,457 sales, was Australia’s third most popular car in June, behind only the Ranger (6,293 sales) and HiLux (6,195 sales).
The diesel-only Isuzu D-Max was in fourth place with 3,119 sales, ahead of the Chinese-made BYD Shark 6 plug-in hybrid ute with 2,993 orders.
The Polestar 4 is a fully-electric SUV that can be recharged in as little as 30 minutes
But sales of the Tesla Model 3 fell by 36.3 per cent, compared with June 2024, to just 1,132 sales.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s previous close political association with Donald Trump has polarised EV customers.
‘When the head of that organisation starts taking on a political agenda, it’s going to polarise public opinion and I think there’s quite a few people that are judging Tesla based on the behaviour of its founder and chief and so that hasn’t helped them,’ he said.
When it came to Polestar’s own sales in Australia, the Polestar 2’s 135 sales in June were 62.1 per cent weaker compared with June 2024, even though it’s available with a long-range engine that can travel 654km before needing recharging.
But the company has since introduced the Polestar 3 and Polestar 4, which are both fully-electric SUVs that can be recharged in as little as 30 minutes.
‘More and more, we’re talking to customers that want the ease of use, that don’t want to have to turn up at servos, that want the range, not just its credentials in sustainability,’ Mr Maynard said.
Polestar started as a Volvo racing subsidiary in 1996 but has since become its own niche fully-electric brand owned by Volvo and its Chinese-owned parent company Geely.
Mr Maynard said Polestar Australia had no plans to offer more rugged four-wheel drives with off-roading ability, pointing out his line-up had five-star crash test ratings.
‘Polestar doesn’t seek to be all things to all people either – there’s a particularly product portfolio that Polestar pursues,’ he said.
‘There’s not currently plans to see an overtly, off-road styled SUV.’
Mr Maynard, who previously ran BYD, Jaguar Land Rover and Audi in Australia, said more change was happening now in the car industry than over the previous three decades he had worked in the sector.
‘In all the years I’ve been in this industry, some three-odd decades, I’ve never seen the industry move as fast and change as much as it is now,’ he said.
‘I include myself in that – I was a technician by trade and have been involved in motorsport so the shift to electric has been as hard for me as it would be for anyone and I’ve absolutely embraced it.’
