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Upcoming Australian pricing - help needed from Tesla management

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cross posted at Tesla company web site.
I appeal to Tesla management to assist with pricing for Australia - at no cost to Tesla, and which will assist in selling cars here.
I have calculated that a moderately optioned S85 will cost 104000 Australian dollars (converted directly from the US pricing. After all Australias multi level taxes, some of which are taxes on taxes on taxes, the car will cost around 150000 Australian dollars!! Ridiculous. Since a good 16000 of that is so-called "luxury car tax", this can be eliminated completely, by one of two means. 1) sell the car here as a "slider" without battery and fit the battery, as a separate invoice item, in Australia.
2) Sell the car as is from the factory, BUT lease the battery, over a short term lease with a pay-out residual to purchase, which would have the same net effect of decreasing the price of the car for tax purposes but Tesla still makes its full margin.

This has to date proved to be an innovative company. PLEASE be innovative on pricing as well!

There is precedent The Renault Fluence EV was to be marketed in Australia in exactly this way.
 
While of course I'd love to see this happen, as an Australian reservation holder, you have to remember that the situation with the Fluence was quite different. Because that car was marketed inclusive of the quick battery-switching technology that was to be supplied by Better Place, you weren't really leasing a particular "battery" as such, more like the service to "have a battery available" at any point in time (as the battery would be switched every time you took it to a swap station). Using that model, it might have been easier to convince the ATO that the battery wasn't actually part of the car for import tax purposes, but you might find it harder when Tesla would be effectively shipping the car in two pieces and then joining them together immediately on landing, for sale as a new vehicle.

Perhaps you might have better luck if the Tesla shipped with a really tiny and inexpensive battery (like 5 kWh or something), that would be enough for it to run on a very limited range (but still be, technically, an operational vehicle), which you could then "upgrade" to a larger model after purchase. I think the question is then more whether it's worth Tesla's time to go to all this trouble for a relatively small market.
 
Another option would be to put leverage on our government which currently has no solution for all the car manufacturing jobs disappearing here. Use the soon to be empty factories as world wide RHD production line, in return for an agreement to make EV's exempt from LCT.

Would be a win for government (save jobs), a win for Tesla and a win for the consumer.

Of course, I know that won't happen.. Australia is a terrible location to export cars from. Too much ocean all around us.
 
I'd just be happy to have any Australian pricing given the advertised launch date of June is only a few months away. Do I put a deposit on a car or not? You can't expect me to give what is effectively a $6000 interest free loan to Tesla without knowing whether I can even afford the car. $104,000 is a reasonable price, not sure about a price over AUD$150,000. I'd love some of the innovative purchase solutions suggested here, if Tesla is going to install a useful charging infrastructure then it'll need a critical mass of car sales.
 
I'd just be happy to have any Australian pricing given the advertised launch date of June is only a few months away. Do I put a deposit on a car or not? You can't expect me to give what is effectively a $6000 interest free loan to Tesla without knowing whether I can even afford the car. $104,000 is a reasonable price, not sure about a price over AUD$150,000. I'd love some of the innovative purchase solutions suggested here, if Tesla is going to install a useful charging infrastructure then it'll need a critical mass of car sales.
pricing should be out in early April so about 10 to 12 days away, so I have been promised.... First deliveries should be in July. Apparently the fact our pricing comes after HK is not relevant in terms of delivery date since they will be batching the cars anyway. Just get your order in early when pricing comes up.