Tesla may have stopped shipping the Model 3 to Australia for the time being, with production for all markets on hold with the closure of its Fremont factory due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but it is still the leader in the fledgling Australian electric vehicle market.
The auto industry is under pressure from the impacts of Covid-19 combining with a two-year slump in petrol and diesel sales. But as The Driven reported on Tuesday, electric vehicles are bucking the trend, reporting increases in sales year-on-year for April for all segments bar commercial SUVs, while the entire industry reported sales were down by half.
Despite reports from sources that no Tesla vehicles have been shipped to Australia since February, the Model 3 is still holding its place at number one in year-to-date sales.
The breakdown of electric vehicle sales collated by The Driven based on figures from Hyundai, Vfacts and Tesla VINs reveal that for the first four months of 2020, just over 1,500 electric vehicles have been sold.
The upshot of this is that Tesla still holds approximately 70% of the electric car market in Australia despite a 12-week hiatus in imports (Tesla only records an order as a sale once it is delivered, however production numbers for Australia are regarded as a fair rule of thumb).
What the future holds for the Australian EV market is very much up in the air, however. In 2019 the number of new electric cars sold tripled to 6,718 from the previous year. Based on YTD figures for 2020 so far, if EV sales are simply maintained there will be a modest increase for 2020.
But is this even possible now?
An electric vehicle strategy has been promised by the Coalition government in mid-2020, although it is expected it will focus on charging network rollouts rather than incentives to encourage people to buy electric vehicles. Likewise, the NSW Net Zero strategy is focused on encouraging fleet transition which would, in turn, feed a secondhand market in the coming years.
It is possible that the car industry will be harder hit before a recovery can gain foothold. One million Australians are reported to have lost income according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and while the Coalition government seems determined to restart the economy, it may well be that the real economic impacts of the necessary stay-at-home measures to contain the virus are not felt for months to come.
In the UK, the car industry has been completely stifled with a 97% drop in sales, with only electric vehicles continuing to sell albeit in smaller numbers than before.
In California, the home of Tesla’s Model 3 factory in Fremont, stay-at-home measures begin to lift on Friday. Although there is no word yet on when this means, Fremont may restart manufacturing, at the company’s first-quarter earnings call last Wednesday (US time), CFO Zachary Kirkhorn said that in regards to the factory shutdown, “In Fremont, we’re working towards restarting production as soon as that’s possible.”
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Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.