WITH official figures showing June was the fifth consecutive month of record electric vehicle sales in Australia, car carrier tonnage continues to flood into the supply chain from China.
ZIM’s Hong Kong subsidiary Gold Star Line has re-introduced a PCC/ro-ro service it operated a few years back, this time scheduling vessels at approximately three-week intervals from Shanghai to Brisbane, Port Kembla and Melbourne.
The first vessel, the 4,902 CEU Gold Xing, is already on the coast and is due to be followed in early August, late August and early September by the sistership Tokyo Car, the 4,870 CEU San Martin and the 6,700 CEU Gold Kochav.
The service is represented in Australia by Inchcape Shipping Services.
Meanwhile, so far there’s been no identified follow-up to the massive publicity-generating May-June voyage of BYD Zhengzhou but a second voyage of the 3,800 CEU China Merchants ro-ro-operated Mao Hong, understood to be with Teslas, is nearing full discharge in Australia.
A record 8,670 Teslas were sold in June, well above the previous record of 6,433 set in May. The Model Y was Australia’s best-selling vehicle, while the Y and the BYD Sealion 7 were the top-selling SUVs.
The COSCO Shipping Car Carriers ro-ro service is now almost up to weekly frequency, having been inaugurated just over a year ago at monthly intervals. Port roster has also expanded, with calls varying per voyage.
BYD is now close to overtaking Toyota as the best-selling brand in Australia, with 52,335 vehicles sold in the first half of 2026, up 124.1% according to VFACTS. Zeekr was up 1,196.6% and Omada Jaeco up 1,176.5%, albeit on low bases.
But Geely sales were up 494.6%, Leapmotor 152.1%, Chery 76.8% and GWM 20.5%.
There are now four Chinese brands in the top ten.
By comparison, Mazda, Suzuki, Toyota, Subaru, Mitsubishi and Nissan all saw double digit sales declines year-on-year.