Footage of a car park full of brand new Teslas has highlighted a major “issue” Elon Musk’s brand faces in the Australian market. The scene, spotted in Perth, shows hundreds of vehicles parked, with industry insider Paul Maric explaining the cars are in a “holding yard” waiting to be sold.
But with just weeks until the brand new and updated Model Y arrives in Australia, older versions of the vehicle remain unsold. “All the cars in that video are old Tesla Model Y’s,” Maric, founder of Car Expert, told Yahoo News.
Due to increased competition from rival EV brands and concerns about the founder’s US political movements among shoppers, sales of the brand have slumped. It means that Tesla is “stuck with old stock that no one wants,” Paul explained.
“Tesla is in a position now that people are losing interest in electric cars. Sales are plateauing,” he said. “They were Australia’s best selling electric car but now there are so many others coming onto the market that offer the same tech and features but are more affordable.”
Maric believes to shift the old stock, they’ll “just keep discounting them”, which he believes results in a loss of trust from customers who bought the cars at a higher price.
He was visiting Perth for an unrelated event when coming across “hundreds” of the cars parked nearby. “We were doing an event and happened to come across the cars parked,” he explained.
In the past, he explained the cars were loaded onto a ship and each car was sold “as they were coming over” to Australia. But now, “demand has dropped off”, meaning the same volume of cars is coming across, but they aren’t allocated to a buyer.
“Now they sit in holding yards,” he said.
Customers ‘lost trust’ in Tesla for slashing prices
Maric says one of the reasons behind Tesla’s recent slump in sales is that the brand has “burned” its customers, who will now think twice before upgrading to a new version of the car. He owned two Tesla’s, first buying a Model Y in 2022 for $72,000. But within two years, the price of his car brand new had dropped by $20,000.
“When I went to sell the car two years later because it was out of lease, brand new Model Y’s were selling for $55,000,” he said. The move has “massively increased depreciation” for those who already own the car.
“On the secondhand market, people are thinking ‘why would I buy your two-year-old Tesla when I could buy a new one for the same price?'” he said. “For me personally, I look at Tesla and think ‘You’ve burned me $20,000. Now, instead of people going back and buying another Tesla, they’ll go and buy a Chinese brand.
“No one expects cars to hold their value, but they expect the manufacturer is honest in the way it deals with its customers, if you burn them once they won’t come back for seconds. People have lost trust in knowing the cars will hold its value.
“People due for another car will be thinking twice about whether it’s a Tesla.”
Elon Musk political activities cause for concern
Elon Musk is facing one of the most difficult periods as the company’s CEO with his new political career at the helm of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a White House team tasked with cutting federal spending. The move has coincided with falling sales and increased attacks on dealerships.
Maric believes his actions in government and the slump in sales are connected — and is costing the company. “All the political stuff with Musk in the states, that’s impacting people’s choice, and this is the flow on effect,” he said.
While Maric says he’s “the smartest guy in the room wherever he goes”, pointing to his Starlink and Space X initiatives, the reality is “people don’t like his involvement in politics and that’s having an effect”. “It’s been a culmination of the things that have led to a sales slump,” he said.
What cars are Australians buying instead of electric cars?
With charging infrastructure in Australia being described as “woeful” by Maric, he believes that Aussies are “running back to hybrids”.
He pointed to the challenges electric car owners face when trying to take long road trips in peak periods as a reason for the shift. Last Easter, chaotic scenes of over 10 Tesla cars waiting to use public charging stations in the rural town of Keith in South Australia, highlighted the issue.
Maric believes that those who are looking to take long road trips will look to hybrid models “so they can fill it with fuel” in a pinch. He admits that while charging infrastructure “may have improved”, so too has the number of cars on the road. “It’s a double-edged sword,” he said.
Tesla Australia was approached for comment.
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