Tesla on track to double Australia EV sales in 2023 after massive first quarter

Electric vehicles sales in Australia have begun the year well – accounting for 6.5 per cent of all new vehicle sales in the first quarter.

That translates to a total of 17,396 hitting the road in the first three months of the year. More than half of them – 10,407 – have been delivered by Tesla, which itself has more than doubled its EV sales over the same quarter of 2022.

Today we look at what has driven some of these high sales numbers so far and what could be ahead for Australia’s best-selling electric car brand.

The first two months of the year saw the Tesla Model 3 electric sedan make it onto the best-selling vehicle podium as the third-best-selling vehicle overall, sitting just below two very popular utes. A total of 5,598 sales were seen over these months.

Most of the sales for the Model 3 stemmed from orders placed earlier in the year. Many order holders placed orders as far back as March 2022.

Then in January this year, prices of all Tesla models were slashed as Tesla caught up with orders from last year and had a big month to kick the year off in 2023. 

According to FCAI, Sales in the first quarter for Tesla’s models were:

• 3,313 in January
• 3,516 in February
• 3,578 in March

March sales bought the Model Y back in the spotlight with 1,938 of Tesla’s total sales total of 3,578 being the popular electric SUV.

Tesla’s Shanghai plant supplies EVs to Australia and in late 2022 saw multiple upgrades to ramp its production. 

Now that the production is ramped up to produce over 1 million vehicles a year, prices were further lowered locally this week, indicating that Tesla is keen to stoke new demand now that the backlog is cleared.

The latest price decreases lowered the cost of a new Tesla Model 3 RWD to $60,900 before on-roads and state rebates and other incentives. That’s some of the lowest prices we’ve seen since late 2021. 

This is great news for drivers looking to make the switch to an EV. These price drops should send a strong message to manufacturers of premium ICE sedans. 

Vehicles like the Mercedes Benz C-Class, Audi A4 and BMW 3-series are all priced far higher than the Tesla Model 3. Owning one of them still means you end up at a petrol station and emit harmful emissions for the entirety of the ownership.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, ICE manufacturers have increased prices on their products. That’s where they are keeping them whilst Tesla has reduced prices twice this year.

That’s in order to increase local market share but also pass on some of the cost savings the brand is seeing with improved supply chains.

With the availability of Tesla vehicles in inventory, shorter wait times on new orders, the prices of new Teslas coming down bringing with them the used car prices, it’s going to be a big year for the brand.

To put it into perspective, Tesla has sold 53% of its total 2022 sales in just the first quarter of 2023. This sets the stage for what’s to come for Tesla and EV uptake in Australia for the rest of this very electrified year.