Tesla Model Y First Deliveries In Australia And New Zealand

The Australian market is relatively small, but important. Tesla has taken its time on the delivery of the Model Y crossover to these oceanic territories, but the first deliveries have already been made, both in Australia and New Zealand. In these countries you drive on the left with the steering wheel on the right, which is always an additional complication.

The Model 3 has been available there since 2019, and orders in these countries began to be made at the beginning of June, so they have in fact taken very little time - as for the times that are customary today -, just over 60 days. Orders were also opened in two other right-hand drive markets, Japan and Singapore: two models are available, the Model Y RWD and the Model Y Performance.

Australians can order the Model Y RWD for $72,300 (Australian), at an exchange rate of 49,800 american dollars; or the Model Y Performance for 96,700 local dollars, just over $66,800 American at the exchange rate. The same for New Zealanders: 76,200 local dollars for the RWD or 108,900 local dollars for the Performance model; as for the Long Range version, it is also manufactured in Shanghai, but it does not reach these countries.

Delivery times are actually shorter for the RWD versions for New Zealand models ordered now, from November to December this year; or for the Performance models from November 2022 to February 2023. In Australia they will have to wait a little bit longer, starting in February 2023. The deadlines are similar to those of the Model 3, so the Giga-Shanghai factory still has - at least as a "fait accompli" situation - a lot of pending workload.

One of the quintessential right-hand drive markets, the United Kingdom, also had delays with the Model Y. Orders began to be placed in October 2021 and the first units reached their owners in February of this year, 2022. Let's take into account that only the Giga-Shanghai (China) factory produces right-hand drive variants right now.

The Tesla Model Y continues to make merits to be the best-selling electric car in the world, and one of the main global models all in all. It is currently manufactured in the United States, Germany and China, although most of the volume actually comes from Giga-Shanghai in China: roughly speaking, a third of all Teslas ever made actually came from the China factory, having already surpassed one million units produced – a truly fantastic achievement for an EV - in just two and a half years of activity.

All images courtesy of Tesla Inc.

Nico Caballero is the VP of Finance of Cogency Power, specializing in solar energy. He also holds a Diploma in Electric Cars from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and enjoys doing research about Tesla and EV batteries. He can be reached at @NicoTorqueNews on Twitter. Nico covers Tesla and electric vehicle latest happenings at Torque News.