Tesla’s Model Y has been the hottest SUV EV on the market in Australia. It has been a hit since its launch in June and thousands have been delivered, all of which have been the single motor Rear Wheel Drive (RWD) model.
Now Tesla’s most expensive EV that can be currently ordered in Australia, the Model Y Performance, has been delayed again, with deliveries not expected to start until 2023.
Model Y Performance pushed to 2023
Local customers of the Tesla Model Y’s dual-motor Performance model have been told this week that their deliveries have been pushed back into 2023.
Original estimates of the orders in June, July and August already had deliveries from November 2022 to February 2023. Then in September, that changed to April 2023 to June 2023 for all new Model Y Performance orders.
Now the original order holders for the Model Y performance have received notifications from Tesla that their orders will be delivered between January 2023 to March 2023.
This change comes as a surprise for many customers as Tesla Shanghai has been producing thousands of RWD models for the Australian market. So much so that Tesla delivered over 4,300 of the Model Y RWDs to Australian customers in September alone.
The silver lining in Model Y Performance delivery delays
The delay is not ideal for many Model Y Performance customers but there could be some positive news if their EV arrives in 2023.
For these delayed vehicles, they will be more than likely produced during or after December this year. Tesla is always upgrading their hardware stack in the cars and generally uses the Shanghai plant to roll out new features that even the US customers get many months later.
This means that the impacted Model Y Performance order holders will be getting the newest possible Tesla Model Y with the latest hardware that Tesla has at that time.
Some of these changes could include the next generation of upgraded higher resolution cameras which Tesla and Samsung signed a multi-billion dollar deal earlier this year. Previously we have also seen other major hardware changes like the additional range being added to the Model 3s without too much notice.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.