Drive Car of the Year 2024 – Best Electric Vehicle under $50K

Over the next few weeks, we'll be explaining all the categories and contenders for Drive Car of the Year 2024. Testing is currently underway, with the final winners to be announced early next year.

Drive Car of the Year 2024

Now in its 18th year, the annual Drive Car of the Year awards program continues to be the Australian new car buyer’s most trusted advisor. 

At Drive, we test drive more than 200 new cars every year, evaluating each against its innate promise to sort the best from the rest. We divide the 400-plus new passenger cars, SUVs, 4WDs and utes into 19 price-banded categories focused on the end-user, then analyse the strengths and weaknesses of every car to find the cream of the automotive crop.

Read more: 

Drive Car of the Year 2024 is a go!

Drive Car of the Year Overview

Drive Car of the Year 2023 winners

There has been a seismic change in the take-up of electric vehicles (EVs), and a flurry of new budget EVs arriving in Australia in the last 12 months has brought new energy to the segment.

This is a carry-over segment from last year, now with a cap of $50,000. To think there were effectively no passenger EVs under this amount not so long ago, and now we have a handful speaks to the explosion in relevance and popularity of this nascent market sector.

The BYD Dolphin is a new compact electric hatchback that has the honour of being the most affordable EV in Australia (just) and will be a clear award-chasing proposition, as will be its bigger sibling the BYD Atto 3 Medium SUV. 

The Atto 3 proves that a new brand, especially one selling just EVs, can find ready acceptance in Australia. The Atto 3 has already sold more units this year than Citroen, Peugeot and Renault combined. 

Then there’s the roomy passenger space in a compact footprint, engaging driving dynamics and outright styling charms of the GWM Ora, while the MG 4 is yet further proof that the Chinese brands are taking the EV segment seriously – and successfully. The MG 4’s competitive equipment list and pricing, good energy efficiency, fast charging and the fact it’s fun to drive will make it hard to ignore.

Drive’s rules require that, for a car to be eligible, it must:

The winner of the 2024 Drive