In an Australian first, Chinese-made hybrid MGs will soon be part of one of the nation’s biggest police fleets with experts claiming China will eventually own the country’s electric vehicle market.
The Queensland Police Service (QPS) has a target of a complete hybrid sedan and SUV fleet by 2025.
To help reach its 100 per cent hybrid target, the state’s police service ordered 45 MG HS Plus EV plug-in hybrid SUVs in March to join its fleet.
The vehicles will be adorned with First Nations artwork, with three cars given to each of the 15 policing districts across the state.
In an Australian first, Chinese-made MG HS SUVs (pictured) will be used as marked police cars
The Queensland Police Service ordered 45 MG HS plug-in hybrid SUVs in March to join its fleet. It comes as the state’s police force plans to be 100 per cent hybrid by 2025
The hybrid cars were independently tested and evaluated by QPS to assess whether they were suited for police duties.
QPS has yet to own the vehicles and pictures of the MGs are not yet available, according to CarExpert.
In New South Wales, MGs are used as speed camera vehicles but are not used in the state as marked police cars.
The MGs will join more conventional hybrid vehicles as part of Queensland’s police fleet including Toyota Camry, RAV4 and Kluger models along with Mitsubishi Outlanders and Kias.
The police department confirmed more than two-thirds of its sedan and SUV fleet is electrified and is on track to have a fleet comprised of hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles within the next two years.
QPS has not set a deadline for the introduction of hybrid vehicles nor has it set any fleet targets as part of its ‘hybrid first’ policy, but told CarExpert it was looking to a ‘full electric vehicle future in the years to come’.
Experts claim the Australian EV market is being dominated by Chinese-made vehicles, with China set to own the market by the end of the decade.
Sam Evans, founder of EV news channel The Electric Viking, explained the majority of hybrid cars being sold in Australia are made in China.
Sam Evans (pictured), founder of EV news channel The Electric Viking, explained the majority of hybrid cars being sold in Australia are Chinese-made and predicted the country’s EV market will be owned by China by the end of the decade
In his video ‘Electric car marketshare in Australia increases 158 per cent’ shared to YouTube on Monday, Evans pointed to the proximity of China as a cause for the massive upturn in EV purchases.
‘The EV market in Australia is probably going to go at a faster pace than a lot of other countries because why we’re right near China,’ Evans said.
He explained China is about to ‘dump’ its EVs onto Australia because the country was not making any money after close to 2,000 car dealerships declared bankruptcy last year.
‘I mean no one is making any money in China right now … The Chinese market is just going to hell and they’re all saying “what are we doing what are we doing just to sell them in Australia we can make a profit”. They can and they will they’re coming.’
Evans said Australia’s market share is currently dominated by EV brands- including Tesla MG, Polestar, Volvo and BMW – made in China.
‘The kings of market share in Australia, well, they’re all from China including Tesla,’ Evans said.
‘Pretty much all EVs dominating market share in Australia come from China. MG, Polestar, Volvo, yeah, Tesla and even some of the other brands as well.
‘Soon we’ll have Aura with the good cat. Soon we’ll have the MG4 and a range of other EVS which you may or may not know about yet.
‘There’s a whole lot more. China will own the Australian car market by the end of the decade. Toyota bye-bye that’s what I think.’
Data released by CarExpert in January showed the five most popular electric vehicles sold in Australia last year were all made in China.
Data released by CarExpert in January showed the five most popular electric vehicles sold in Australia in 2022 were made in China (pictured)
Sales of electric cars in 2022 almost doubled with 33,410 EVs sold in the year – equating to about 3 per cent of the new vehicle market.
Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y topped the list with 10,877 and 8,717 sales respectively – with the Model 3 breaking Toyota Camry’s decades-long run as Australia’s top-selling mid-sized sedan.
BYD Atto 3 secured ranked third with 2,113 sales despite only being available from November and December.
In fourth spot was the Polestar 2 with 1,554 sales in its first full year, while the MG ZS closed out the top-five with 1,119 sales.
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