Skywell ET5 electric SUV confirmed for Oz

Hot on the heels of TrueEV’s XPeng announcement, EV Automotive has announced it will release the Skywell ET5 in Australia as the 2025 EVA 5 late this year.

The EVA 5 is a battery-electric mid-size SUV aimed squarely at the top-selling Tesla Model Y and BYD Atto 3, but EV Automotive says it will undercut both those EVs with an introductory price of less than $50,000 drive-away.

Measuring 4720mm long, 1908mm wide and 1696mm tall, the five-seat EVA 5 rides on a 2800mm wheelbase and offers a 471-litre boot, expanding to 1141L with the second row stowed.

EV Automotive CEO Jack Puzin confirmed to carsales that the EVA 5 will be offered here in three guises, the lesser two fitted with a 72kWh battery pack and the flagship packing an 86kWh unit that increases the vehicle’s effective range from 400km to 489km.

All versions are powered by a 150kW/320Nm electric motor mounted on the front axle, resulting in a claimed 0-100km/h acceleration time of 7.9 seconds.

Puzin said the EVA 5 would be offered via EV Automotive’s existing direct-sales model and distributed with the help of its established partners, with Mycar set to handle servicing for the foreseeable future – just as BYD did when it first arrived.

“We intend on having experience centres across major cities where customers can view the vehicles in locations such as shopping centres and major hubs,” he said.

“Our [sales] goals are extremely modest in the first year. In following years we will be more ambitious.”

What those goals are specifically remains to be seen, however, a sub-$50K starting price would see the EVA 5 cross-shopped against combustion, hybrid and plug-in hybrid alternatives as well as its obvious battery-electric rivals.

Puzin named Tesla, BYD and Mitsubishi as the primary competition – though Xpeng, Chery and SsangYong are also likely to be competitors – and said a batch of evaluation EVA 5 vehicles was already in Melbourne for testing and homologation purposes.

Also undergoing ADR approval at the moment are the EC1 Light Truck and EC1 Van battery-electric twins that EV Automotive hopes will shake-up the inner-city commercial delivery scene, since the former is “likely” to be priced from under $40,000.

Both electric commercial vehicles feature a 42kWh traction battery, outputs of up to 60kW/200Nm, a top speed of 100km/h, a maximum NEDC range of up to 300km and payloads in excess of 1100kg.

For everything you auto know about EVs, listen to carsales' Watts Under the Bonnet: the electric car podcast

Join the conversation at our Facebook page
Or email us at editor@carsales.com.au