Model Y and Model 3 orders skyrocket in Tesla’s new frontier market

Tesla’s sales in Thailand, its latest launch market, have skyrocketed since opening last Wednesday. Tesla has announced that it’s received more than 5,000 orders in the first three days of orders opening up for its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.

Like Australia, Thailand is also a right-hand drive market where Tesla’s Model 3 starts at just under $75,000 AUD while the Model Y prices start at the equivalent of $A83,300 for the RWD model. 

These may seem like high prices compared to the same models being sold here but as seen by the demand, there is plenty of interest in Thailand.

An interesting part of the Models available in the Thailand launch is the addition of the Model Y Long Range model. This variant is not available to Australian customers in Tesla’s local design studio.

The price of the dual-motor Model Y Long Range is just over $96,000 AUD which is $700 less than the dual-motor Performance which starts at $96,700 (before on-roads) here in Australia.

The other unique change for Thailand-bound Teslas is that customers in Thailand are unable to choose the white interior option which is offered here in Australia and in many other markets. 

It’s unclear why Tesla has not included that option but it’s not common for Tesla to add or remove features based on the market. One other example of this is the lack of a Tesla factory-fitted towbar which is available in the US and the UK market but is yet to be made available in Australia or Thailand.

The first deliveries are expected to be in February from Tesla’s Shanghai factory which is the same manufacturing plant that produces cars for the Australian market.

In the first year of delivering EVs into the Thailand market, Tesla will build 10 supercharger sites which will be a game changer for EV ownership and complement some of the existing DC fast charging infrastructure.

It’s great to see Tesla launching EVs into new markets and seeing rapid uptake. We have seen a similar trend with the launch of the Model Y here in Australia where 8,257 have been delivered so far. 

With many more markets yet to come for Tesla, the next couple of years will be exciting to watch as EVs replace ICE vehicles to reduce pollution across many global cities.