California carmaker Tesla has officially announced the start of deliveries of its best-selling Model 3 electric sedan in Australia, posting a video of one lucky recipient to Twitter Monday morning.
A black Standard Range Plus Model 3 was filmed rolling out of Tesla’s Richmond Service and Delivery Centre in Melbourne, with one very pleased driver flashing the victory sign as they drove off silently into the Victorian capital’s streets.
Tesla actually commenced deliveries last Tuesday, as reported by The Driven, however the post on Twitter is a clear signal to the rest of the developed world – where the shift to electric mobility is well under way – that Australia is slowly but surely beginning the long road to catch up.
To date in Australia, the number of sales by Tesla have been very low – in 2017, the carmaker sold just 1,410 vehicles in Australia – although that is likely to be a reasonable share of the overall Australia market.
In comparison, in Tesla’s domestic market, the US, it sold just over 103,000 vehicles in the same year according to data compiled by Inside EVs.
It is not known how many Model 3s have been ordered in Australia – Tesla is notoriously tight-lipped about localised sales figures – but it is likely that the arrival of the Model 3, just another in a flurry of new electric vehicles available to the Australian market in the last 12 months, will accelerate the shift here that is so badly needed.
To read the full story, please go to our EV-focused sister site, The Driven.
