Sedans can be fashionable in Australia again – if they’re electric

Australia’s love for the sedan – which was once the mainstay of Aussie driveways some decades back – is about to be reignited. But the 21st century comeback won’t look anything like the car your parents drove.

The sedan, once the mainstay of Aussie driveways, appears to be making a 21st century comeback but it’s not the car your parents drove.

Shunned over the past decade as new-car buyers flocked to trendier SUVs, the traditional sedan has been given a jump-start from the most unlikely of sources.

Tesla’s Model 3 is the best-selling passenger vehicle in the country this year, outshining popular SUVs such as the Toyota RAV4 and Mazda CX-5.

It seems that sedans can be fashionable if they’re electric.

Other car makers are following suit. Polestar, a Volvo offshoot, has an electric four-door, while Hyundai will launch one – the Ioniq 6 – this month.

Social analyst David Chalke said that while the Model 3 was a traditional shape, it was far from a traditional car.

The Tesla Model 3 Long Range makes a statement about you.

“Other than your home, the car is the strongest personal statement about who you are and therefore it is highly driven by fashion. To drive a Model 3 demonstrates to the rest of the world that you are modern, ahead of the curve, super sophisticated, hi-tech and very 21st century. There’s no rational reason to buy one. It’s purely emotional,” he said.

He said the Tesla also appealed because it was “left field”.

“It is the classic market disrupter. I suspect that people aren’t buying it because it’s a sedan but because it’s a wonderful sign of modernity,” he said.

At a Tesla investor day this week, Lars Moravy, the company’s vice president of engineering, said the shape of a car didn’t matter as much as the technology within it.

“If you make a car desirable and affordable, often times it doesn’t necessarily matter what segment it’s in, because it’s one that you want,” he said.

For electric carmakers, sedans provide other advantages. They are sleeker and more aerodynamic than SUVs, which reduces energy consumption and adds crucial extra kilometres to an EV’s range.

Tesla’s Model 3 long range has a range of 602km, compared with 514km for the Model Y SUV.

The 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6 will have a greater range than the SUV-like Ioniq 5.

Hyundai’s Ioniq 6 has 614km of range, compared with the SUV-like Ioniq 5’s 507km.

Toby Hagon, from the EVCentral website, said the Model 3’s sleek lines reduced drag at freeway speeds.

“They might not deliver the interior space and flexibility of an SUV but they are an engineer’s dream as far as aerodynamics is concerned,” he said.

Jonny Wallace, 36, has a Tesla Model 3 Long Range.

“I never would have considered a sedan before the Tesla Model 3, for me it always would have been a hatch,” he said.

“I had a WRX when I was younger and the acceleration when you put your foot down in the Tesla is what sold it for me.

“It has so much space inside and easily fits my five-year-old son and two dogs. We’ve used it for family holidays down to Melbourne or to the snow. I use the trunk a lot, too.

“It really ticks all the boxes for me.”

In the past couple of decades, private buyers have shunned sedans because SUVs provide more space for people and luggage.

The Toyota Camry is the sole survivor of an era where four local factories once churned out sedans for the adoring masses. While the Camry still sells in reasonable numbers, sales are underpinned by taxi drivers, uber operators and rental fleets.

At the turn of the century, sedans made up roughly a third of passenger vehicle sales. Before the Model 3 arrived, that had shrunk to less than 5 per cent.