WR1 General Discussion, page-25622

I think when you do this type of analysis its important to look a little further back than a few years.
Savings before covid were similar to this if not lower but people still bought cars.

A few thoughts I would give your comments.

"would be struggling to even be able to afford to replace a battery" - Yes a battery is very expensive but an ICE vehicle has many more components that can break that cost money and if they are European, they are also quite expensive due to shipping etc.

"Only really an average baby boomer can afford one with a bit of cash left" - 90% of car sales in Australia are done based on finance and of that 10% most are wealthy people that do not wish to pay interest, so I would say the base case is low.

"Of course they could get a loan, but most would rather get a home loan first, get a home loan and there is no extra money for an EV loan really for the average Australian" - I think you'll find that there is a divide on this. 18-26 age bracket, far more people are interested in buying a flashy car than they are at putting down for a deposit. I also think there are some that are older and renting that recognise with house prices continuing to go up that they may be better off renting and enjoying their savings. Which would result in more material items, such as cars.

Personally, I agree that the price tag is someone of a deteriante but a BYD car costs 39k and a Mazda 3 costs 30k and they are everywhere.
I also think that prices have been able to reman elevated due to the low number of new EV entrants. As the supply and viable competitors enter the market, price wars will have to commence. Tesla alone have dropped its cars price twice in the last year.

I do think that the sharp increase in interest rates may have pushed car purchasing to the side temporarily but if we begin to enter a cycle of cuts. I think you'll see more people buy as well. Just my 2 cents