Could Tesla have bigger plans for Australia than the Big Battery?

A comment posted  – and then hastily deleted – by Tesla’s “Marketing Dept” under a news story over the weekend has caused a flutter of speculation that the US EV and battery maker could have plans to develop a car manufacturing plant on Australian shores.

But it turns out to be a hoax.

The CleanTechnica story, which was about Tesla’s west German division, prompted a comment from reader “Steve_S”, who noted that the EV maker should be keeping an eye on Australia’s automotive market, after the closure of the nation’s last major car factory – the Holden plant in north Adelaide – earlier this month.

“What about Australia now that GM shuttered Holden, huge car manufacturing facilities doing NADA… Maybe an Aussie Edition Tesla and for pan-Asian exports as well…,” the commenter said.

In a screenshot sent to RenewEconomy (and pictured above), the “Tesla Marketing Dept.” appears to have responded to the comment a few hours later:

“Thanks you for highlighting this possibility, which is anyway on the table. A final decision has not been taken yet.”

It turns out, however, that it was a hoax. “The account referred in the recent RenewEconomy article is not an official Tesla account and should not have been reported as such,” a Tesla spokesman said by email.

As a result, we have amended the story to reflect that, and we apologise to readers.