The Tesla Model Y racked up 4359 deliveries in September, making it Australia’s third top-selling vehicle behind only the Toyota HiLux (5170) and Ford Ranger (4890).
That figure made the Tesla Model Y easily the country’s best-selling SUV for the month, well ahead of the Mazda CX-5 (2439), Mitsubishi Outlander (1879), and Toyota RAV4 (1856).
As well as delivering 4359 Model Ys, Tesla handed over 1610 Model 3 sedans, taking its September sales tally to 5969 units.
That made Tesla Australia’s seventh biggest-selling car brand for the month, ahead of Volkswagen (3698), MG (3261) and Subaru (3167).
Overall EV sales across September in Australia tallied 7247 units – more than the cumulative total for hybrid and PHEVs (5141 combined). This took EV market share to a record 7.8 per cent for the month.
Tesla accounted for 82 per cent of this total EV sales tally.
The Model Y also helped drive China into third-place on the monthly list of where Australia’s vehicles were imported from, edging ahead of Korea and trailing only Japan and Thailand.
Teslas sold in Australia are made at its Giga Shanghai plant.
As reported earlier this week, Tesla produced a record 365,923 cars across its factories in China, Germany and the US during the third quarter (Q3) of 2022.
We’ve long been expecting a sales spike for Tesla in Australia across the latter parts of 2022.
Tesla Inc. Chair Robyn Denholm, an Australian who once worked at Telstra, recently said she “wouldn’t be surprised” if the number of Teslas on local roads doubled by the end of this year.
Ms Denholm reportedly told the Clean Energy Summit in Sydney in July that “we now have more than 26,500 Teslas on Australian roads, and the momentum is there”.
“I personally wouldn’t be surprised if we double that number by the end of the year,” Ms Denholm claimed.
Doubling its existing fleet by year’s end would be remarkable, given it delivered less than 5000 cars in the first half of 2022 due to plant showdowns during the updates.
But its YTD tally to the end of September now sits at 14,023 sales, taking it to 16th in market overall and putting it ahead of Honda and Audi.
Top 10 brands in September
- Toyota – 14,852
- Kia – 7290
- Mazda – 7259
- Mitsubishi – 6784
- Ford – 6635
- Hyundai – 6501
- Tesla – 5969
- Volkswagen – 3698
- MG – 3261
- Subaru – 3167
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