As a Perth resident who has had a keen interest in buying a Tesla for about 5 years now here is my perspective on what needs to happen for the Tesla Model S / X to make the same kind of inroads here as it has in the US (beyond the enthusiast with money to burn). My household is in the top 15% of Australian earners so I am thinking this should put me within Tesla's target demographic.
1) Better tax incentives (e.g. get rid of stamp duty and LCT on EVs at the very least and/or make getting a novated lease worth-while wrt FBT), ACT is most of the way there
2) Option to finance over 7 years at < 5% interest pa, putting payments on a modestly spec'd S85 at around $1500 per month assuming deposit of $10k or less (based on the US model the car depreciates at 50% over 3 years so at $18k per year you are at least beating depreciation).
3) Tesla service centres in every major city including Perth
4) To me while it would be nice to have a supercharger network, this is by no means a deal breaker - the majority of Australian working in cities live in houses with a carport or garage within a 50km commute to work so even if they plug into a standard connection at home (and a lot of us have three phase) the S85 has more than enough range - they can have the car charged up and ready to go over night.
If at least 2 and 3 can be sorted out I'm in, would cost me about the same as my current 5 year buy on a Prado GXL.
1) Better tax incentives (e.g. get rid of stamp duty and LCT on EVs at the very least and/or make getting a novated lease worth-while wrt FBT), ACT is most of the way there
2) Option to finance over 7 years at < 5% interest pa, putting payments on a modestly spec'd S85 at around $1500 per month assuming deposit of $10k or less (based on the US model the car depreciates at 50% over 3 years so at $18k per year you are at least beating depreciation).
3) Tesla service centres in every major city including Perth
4) To me while it would be nice to have a supercharger network, this is by no means a deal breaker - the majority of Australian working in cities live in houses with a carport or garage within a 50km commute to work so even if they plug into a standard connection at home (and a lot of us have three phase) the S85 has more than enough range - they can have the car charged up and ready to go over night.
If at least 2 and 3 can be sorted out I'm in, would cost me about the same as my current 5 year buy on a Prado GXL.