Tesla’s roller-coaster in sales, and the story it tells about EVs in Australia

Tesla by far is the best-selling EV manufacturer in Australia. In the last year, Tesla has grown its customer base and the EV fleet significantly by adding nearly 23,000 cars into our market. That accounts for around two thirds of total sales.

Today – at the suggestion of a reader curious about the bounciness of Tesla sales – I look at the sales trends from the last 12 months and the story they tell about what’s next.

Tesla has sold 22,907 EVs since the beginning of 2022. Of these, 13,804 have been the Model 3, Australia’s best-selling EV sedan that outsold the long-running Toyota Camry ICE vehicle in 2022. 

The remaining 9,103 sales went to the very popular Tesla Model Y which only launched into our market in June 2022.  The Model Y jumped over Model 3 sales for three months in 2022 before falling back in recent months as Tesla caught up with some long standing Model 3 orders.

The first sizeable customer deliveries of 1,107 electric SUVs made it to our shores in August last year.

Diving a bit deeper into the sales numbers, the second quarter of 2022 saw next to no deliveries from Tesla which overall affected EV sales in Australia. EV sales in every one of those months hovered around 1,000 vehicles a month.

Tesla then was able to produce vehicles as Covid-related shutdowns were coming off and restrictions for the factory staff in Shanghai also eased. 

Tesla also took the opportunity in the first half of June to launch its Model Y in Australia, sending a handful of cars. The first of which was spotted in Melbourne on the 10th of June.

That was the start of the sales-heavy second half of 2022 which bought thousands more Teslas to our shores.

Fuel prices & Pent-up Demand

With now both models available in the second half of 2022 and fuel prices remaining high in Australia, many ICE vehicle owners were ready to make the switch to their first EV.

With the extended delivery times on the Tesla Model 3 from earlier in the year, many existing customers of the smaller Tesla Model 3 were ready to upgrade to the Model Y.

The Model Y had a much shorter estimated delivery date which led to many more sales for the larger family-friendly electric SUV. All in all, Tesla sold 8,717 of Model Ys in the last five months of 2022.

2023, Tesla and EV uptake takes off

With just the first month behind us in 2023, Tesla has already sold 3,313 EVs with over 80% of them being the Tesla Model 3s.

This has meant that Tesla EV kickstarted the year with 2,927 Tesla Model 3 sedans that were sold nationally. Most recent Tesla trends from carloop also suggest that many of these vehicles that were delivered in January were orders from as far back as March 2022. 

That’s nearly 12 months’ worth of built-up demand that’s contributing to a strong start to 2023 for Tesla.

With Tesla slashing prices across all EV models in Australia to kick-start 2023, it will only ensure that the demand for its EVs remains high in Australia.