The stinkbug infestation that deprived Model Y of the crown of best selling car in Australia

Tesla had its best year of sales in 2023 in Australia, with a 135% increase in its sales over the previous year. But it could have been so much better, were it not for a stinkbug infestation on one of its biggest delivery ships.

According to data from FCAI, Tesla Model Y was the sixth best-selling car in the country with 28,769 sales in 2023, and the third best-selling car if utes are excluded from the list. It was easily the best selling EV.

For context, the best-selling passenger car was the Toyota Rav4 with 29,627 sales and the third best-selling vehicle was the Isuzu D-Max ute with 31,202 sales.

The story could have been different if Tesla had been able to deliver thousands more cars to Australian drivers , were it not for a ship that was forced to turn around in late December due to biosecurity issues. 

The Glovis Caravel car carrier ship with Tesla EVs from Shanghai in China and other cars from South Korea was ordered to return to Shanghai due to a stink bug infestation. 

According to Australian Tesla shipping expert, Vedaprime, the ship had been waiting for 65 days in Australia before this decision was made.  The ship was transporting large quantities of Model Y vehicles which would have added to the total sales in 2023. 

Customers received an email from Tesla late in December with an update on their Model Y order:

“Since our last update, we have been advised by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) that the Glovis Caravel vessel has been denied entry to Australia and is required to return to Shanghai for further processing prior to re-entering an Australian port.

“We are actively investigating all available options to get your Model Y to you as soon as possible. This may include reassigning your order to a vehicle from the next batch of production”

Last week, this ship arrived back in Shanghai where those Tesla vehicles were unloaded. It’s unclear at this stage what the next step will be.

Biosecurity is extremely important and DAFF took the necessary steps, but it does make us wonder though that – were it not for the stinkbug infestation – would an EV have been crowned the best selling passenger car in the country for the first time.

Order holders for the returned Model Y EVs are likely to receive their new cars in Q1, further boosting to the EV uptake and Tesla sales tally in 2024.

This would also make it a huge quarter of deliveries with the new Model 3 refresh cars arriving in large quantities.

Tesla sales table