Another bad month for Tesla sales in Australia

Tesla has recorded its eighth straight month of year-on-year sales decline in Australia, with the electric vehicle (EV) specialist facing increasing competition from Chinese rivals.

According to data published by the Electric Vehicle Council (EVC), Tesla delivered 2540 vehicles to Australian customers in November, representing a 35.5 per cent drop on the same month a year prior.

While this is a bounceback from October’s tally – in which just 1464 vehicles were delivered – it’s Tesla’s ninth monthly sales decline this year, with no year-on-year increase recorded since March.

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The result also comes a month after the MG 4 became the first EV to outsell either the Model Y or Model 3 in a month since sales data of Tesla vehicles was first tracked.

Despite this, Tesla is expected to remain the best-selling EV maker for 2024, with 34,754 deliveries made between January and November.

The Model Y remains its most popular vehicle, with the electric SUV racking up 1653 deliveries in November, accounting for more than two-thirds of Tesla’s total but still a significant 47.5 per cent decrease on the same month last year.

It’s still down almost 30 per cent year-to-date on 2023’s figures to the end of November, with 19,392 new examples hitting local roads this year.

Model 3 deliveries increased by 12.4 per cent year-on-year after 887 examples were registered last month, however it too is experiencing a sales drop – albeit by just under seven per cent – compared to 2023.

This is despite Tesla heavily discounting both the Model Y and Model 3 by thousands of dollars earlier this year following the launch of more affordable EVs from rival brands in our market.

While we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to know Australia’s overall EV sales data for November, it’s expected the market for battery-powered vehicles will have continued to grow on last year’s record, though at a reduced rate.

The drop in Tesla’s deliveries this year has been a major driver in the cooling of EV sales growth in Australia; in contrast, hybrid and plug-in hybrid sales have risen sharply.

The facelifted ‘Highland’ Model 3 was expected to drive a sales increase this year, while the upcoming ‘Juniper’ update to the Model Y is anticipated to boost deliveries after its rumoured 2025 launch.

Tesla is still performing better than rival EV brand Polestar, whose figures were also reported in the Electric Vehicle Council report.

The 1535 Polestar vehicles sold this year aren’t enough to eclipse the Tesla Model Y’s November deliveries.

The Polestar 2 – which is priced similarly to the Model 3 – recorded just 35 deliveries in November (down 81.4 per cent year-on-year), with only 1413 examples registered so far this year.

Polestar’s larger 3 and 4 SUVs are slowly rolling out in Australia, but not quick enough to stem the flow of the brand’s 60 per cent year-to-date sales decline.