Photo: David Zalubowski/AP
The number of Tesla vehicles on Australian roads could reach 53,000 by the end of this year, the company's chairman said.
Tesla sales in Australia continue to rise, especially when compared to other automakers. They should catch up with sales of its Powerwall home batteries in the country, the company chairman Robyn Denholm said at the Australian Clean Energy Summit in Sydney. “Australia is in a very unique position from an energy perspective, in that we have more Powerwalls installed in Australia than we do have Teslas on the road,” she said.
Denholm said there are now more than 26,500 Teslas on the roads in Australia, but she would not be surprised if that number doubles by the end of the year.
“We now have more than 26,500 Teslas on Australian roads, and the momentum is there. I personally wouldn't be surprised if we double that number by the end of the year.”
As of the end of Q2 2022, Tesla has sold 2,899,877 vehicles worldwide and only about 1% of that fleet is on the roads in Australia. Electric vehicles account for only 2% of new car sales in Australia, and Denholm is aware of what is blocking their wider adoption. She explained that the biggest barrier to the wider adoption of electric vehicles is the lack of fast charging stations. To speed up the deployment of fast charging stations, transformers need to be added to the grid, a process Denholm says is very slow in Australia compared to the rest of the Asia-Pacific region. “These chargers need to be rolled out without delay. This is the missing piece to mass EV adoption,” she said.
Denholm has urged the new Labor government to introduce automotive fuel emission standards to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles and encourage network upgrades. It is the grid that is crucial for charging stations and utility-scale energy storage.
© 2022, Eva Fox | Tesmanian. All rights reserved.
_____________________________
We appreciate your readership! Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Article edited by @SmokeyShorts, you can follow him on Twitter
About the Author
Eva Fox
Eva Fox joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover breaking news as an automotive journalist. The main topics that she covers are clean energy and electric vehicles. As a journalist, Eva is specialized in Tesla and topics related to the work and development of the company.
