Tesla Model 3 Production Started Again
Electric vehicle demand in Australia is hitting new highs in 2022, and no brand is – or should be – reaping as much benefit from this than the world's best selling EV company Tesla.
But, as many customer are finding out, ordering a new EV is one thing. Having it delivered is another.
Tesla has already warned new customers that they face a 12 month wait for their new orders, and now it has told Australian customers who have placed orders in the last 6 months that their cars will now not be delivered until the second half of 2022.
"Due to the ongoing situation in Shanghai our factory is currently operating at a reduced capacity impacting vehicle production for our market," Tesla told one Model 3 customer (who had ordered their's in February) by email.
"We anticipate production to return to full scale soon and our market (to) receive deliveries in the second half of 2022." At least half a dozen other customers waiting for their Model 3 deliveries reported receiving the same or similar messages and phone discussions.
When exactly will Tesla deliveries start again, and what has caused this delay? Here is what we know.
China lockdowns in March cripple Tesla production
Shanghai, a city with a bigger population than all of Australia, is at the heart of the delays for Tesla. The megacity went into lockdown in march 2022 after initially announcing to reduce their production staff by 75% in March 2022.
In April 2022, Tesla produced a total of 10,757 cars out of their Shanghai Gigafactory after restarting their factory on April 19th.
For April, Tesla was only able to produce less than half their daily production rate before the lockdowns began. This meant that in April, Tesla produced 4,233 Model 3s. Most of which were left-hand drive EVs to be sent to Europe.
Production has started to ramp back up but Tesla's suppliers are facing similar challenges too with this prolonged lockdown. It may take the whole of May to get back up to producing over 2,000 cars per day.
For Australian customers, this is not great news but Tesla has advised customers that they will do what they can to get the cars here by the second half of the year.
The Driven understands that some of these customers originally placed their orders as far back as November 2021. They have now waited over 6 months for their new Tesla Model 3.
Tesla Model Y Australian launch very likely delayed
As production of Tesla's Australian supply plant in Shanghai is slowly ramping back up, long wait times for new Tesla Model 3 customers are here to stay for most of 2022.
Tesla Model Y is even more popular, particularly in Tesla's Chinese market as seen by recent reports where Tesla Model Y topped premium SUV sales in 2022 so far.
For the Australian market, it's very likely that the Tesla Model Y launch will be delayed even further. This is disappointing news for many Australians wanting to buy their first EV SUV, or upgrade their existing one, who may have to wait until 2023 to get deliveries of the Model Y.
This is expected under the huge local Model Y demand, production and shipping challenges that Tesla faces.
What's next for local Tesla customers
Tesla has notified many customers on Friday the 13th of May that their cars are more likely to be delivered in the second half of 2022.
This is not ideal but many circumstances are out of Tesla and their China team's control. We hope the situation in China improves and Tesla can turn this around quickly while working closely with their suppliers and local government authorities.
This is a slight hiccup in EV uptake in Australia after Tesla delivered over 4,000 cars in the first 3 months of 2022. As things improve over the coming months, Tesla will be doing everything they can to exceed over 7,000 deliveries for Australian customers.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne. He is a mechanical engineer who worked all around Australia building infrastructure for the first 7 years of his career before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.
Check out our Models pages for news and analysis, reviews and road trips on this and all EV models currently or soon to be available in Australia.
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Source: https://thedriven.io/2022/05/14/tesla-pushes-model-3-deliveries-into-second-half-of-2022/
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