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News - TeslaTesla’s plan to reinvigorate sales Down UnderBEV brand confident that fresh marketing, new Model Y can arrest 62pc sales dive19 May 2025 WITH Tesla facing sales challenges on a global scale, its robust Australian outfit is no different, with year-to-date volume down 62 per cent in 2025 due to myriad reasons beyond the politics of the brand’s polarising CEO.
But Tesla Australia is confident that fresh marketing and new products, such as the facelifted Model Y, will reinvigorate the brand’s sales fortunes here.
Speaking to GoAuto at the recent 2025 Model Y RWD launch, Tesla Australia and New Zealand country director Thom Drew said a number of factors contributed to the percentage sales dive this year, including a very strong comparative first quarter of 2024 and an inevitable delay in the model changeover between old and new Model Ys.
“Not going too granular on the details, we had really big delivery months (from January to April) last year, partially from the launch of the new Model 3, but also partially with some logistics delays that we had and a few influencing factors that made the start of last year very, very fruitful,” he said.
“So the year-on-year numbers do look significant. There’s no shying away from that. But the changeover of old to new Model Y is a big contributing factor.”
Mr Drew said he expects the general softening in Australian EV sales in 2025 will soon turn around, though his underlying expectation is that Tesla sales will significantly increase in the coming months.
“We've just started Model Y test drives, which people have been waiting for before they make their decision, and then deliveries begin (in early May). So yeah, we expect to see that (sales) result improve.
“Those cars have literally only just started to arrive in the last two or three weeks into all their locations, and (we’re) seeing a record demand for [test] drives coming through,” he said.
But Tesla Australia will need more than just pent-up demand for the facelifted Model Y to regain its sales standing.
Mr Drew confirmed that Tesla Australia was about to embark on a fresh marketing campaign, underpinned by the brand’s unmatched ‘Supercharger’ public charging network and the strength of its products.
“(We’re) probably not ready to publicly share exactly what we’re doing, but we have reinvested in our marketing team. We’ve built out the team, we’ve brought on Kevin Goult (former Jaguar Land Rover, Hyundai and Audi marketing executive) in a senior capacity to help us re engage with local media. And obviously plan out a strategy to really get our product back in focus,” he said.
“(In the past) we did do a lot more outbound marketing activity and there was a change as we brought on Model 3 (in 2019), and that volume and demand did change. I think there was less of a need at that time (to market the Tesla brand). But, you know, swings and roundabouts, and we’re kind of back here again, wanting to get the product out there.”
The Cybertruck could well be a part of that product story. Following a successful 12-month Cybertruck tour of Australia and New Zealand, Tesla’s futuristic electric dual-cab ‘ute’ appears likely to get a green light for right-hand drive production, even though this is yet to be officially confirmed.
“It continues to be a conversation,” said Mr Drew. “Obviously, the decision for that is well above our local market. We’re making our case and advocating for that product and where we see it realistically fitting into the (Australian) market.
“It is a premium-priced product and so on – (likely to be priced from $100K for the rear-drive model to $200K for the tri-motor Cyberbeast) – but we think locally, we’ve got a good amount of interest in it. And the marketing campaign we’ve been doing for the last 12 months with the Cybertruck tour has garnered an amazing amount of feedback from people demanding for us to take their money almost.”
Australian interest in the Cybertruck is strengthened by headline features such as a maximum 5000kg braked towing capacity and an 1100kg payload in US specification.
“So we do think there’s a good segment for it here, (however) the decisions need to be made from our engineering product team on whether or not they do launch it,” he said.
Helping the Cybertruck’s cause is the relative ease of right-hand-drive manufacture. The steer-by-wire set-up means no steering column relocation, and apart from various Australian Design Rule (ADR) stipulations – which could be significant – there would only be the switch from a North American Charging System socket to the CCS2 port used in Australia.
However, Mr Drew has previously claimed that there are no engineering barriers to impede a right-hand-drive Cybertruck.
Tesla definitely has the production capacity. Tesla CEO Elon Musk originally forecast annual sales of up to 250,000 Cybertrucks, though less than 50,000 have been sold since it began production at the Tesla Gigafactory in Austin, Texas in November 2023.
As for likely Australian Cybertruck demand or volume, Mr Drew refused to confirm any numbers, though when pressed, he did communicate what he hoped it would be.
“I’m probably not at liberty to say given the product-planning stages here but I’d like to think it was five (figures).”  Read more |
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