√Opinion: The crucial model missing from Australia’s car market

The next wave of new-car buyers have different priorities to their predecessors. If car brands were clever, here’s how they’d respond.

If it wasn’t already clear looking at Australia’s roads, a quick glance at our new car sales data will tell you: utes and SUVs are king (and if you can make it a V6, even better).

However, a new generation of car buyers is almost upon us – and they could be set to rewrite the automotive script.

Not only are these young prospective car buyers unable to afford big cars, they also don’t have anywhere to put them.

Enter the ‘cool hatch’. A small, affordable electric car that places convenience over performance and is designed to be shared, not wholly owned.

Allow me to explain…

We already know electric vehicles are the next big wave in automotive – it’s where the bulk of the growth and development is happening and, anecdotally, where most of the consumer interest lies.

This is particularly true for Generation Z and their successors, Generation Alpha.

These are young people who are reaching – or are yet to reach – driving age, but who have more pressing priorities.

According to Stanford University research from 2022, Gen Z are “dismayed about inherited issues like climate change” and are delaying or avoiding getting their driver’s licence because they “have no need to drive when they have ready access to ride services like Uber and Lyft”.

Additionally, they are disproportionately concerned about money, with a 2022 Deloitte study finding ‘cost of living’ is the number one concern for Gen Z, with 46 per cent of young study participants saying they live pay cheque to pay cheque.

The 2023 GWM Ora has the potential to be the perfect ‘cool hatch’, if only it were priced slightly lower.

This makes this worrying fact even more sobering: less than half the electric cars currently available in Australia are priced under $65,000 and none are priced under $40,000 (drive-away).

After 10 consecutive interest rate rises, all Australians are feeling the pinch of inflation and the concept of purchasing a new car, let alone an expensive electric one, feels further away than ever.

Worse still, for aspiring first home buyers, property ownership now feels like a pipe dream.

As a result, more of us are either choosing to live further out of town, or sticking close to the CBD but only able to afford smaller living spaces, without off-street parking.

This adds another prospective criterion to young people’s automotive shopping lists: their car must be able to squeeze into a tight apartment car park, or fit into limited on-street parking.

Of course, we’ll always need utes and SUVs for people with growing families, those with towing and load-hauling requirements, and for those living in rural areas with long-distance driving as a priority.

But if we want to encourage more young people to get their licence, we need more ‘cool hatches’.

Affordable, electric, compact cars would be perfect for young buyers with both limited budgets and limited living spaces – they’d also be ideal fleet vehicles for car-sharing companies.

The kinds of cars I’m talking about exist, and more are on their way, but their success will depend entirely on how they’re priced.

The Fiat 500e, for example, is small and electric, but could be priced closer to $40,000 when it lands in Australia. The GWM Ora is also heading in the right direction with its $44,990 drive-away price tag, but it’s still not quite affordable enough.

Car companies, your move. We need more options for tomorrow’s car buyer, like, yesterday.

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