Tesla is on track to double its numbers in a year. New South Wales figures reveal the electric car company is humming along nicely.
Data depicting the number of vehicles registered in NSW shows that the electric car brand is powering along in Australia, having enjoyed its best quarter yet in April, May and June this year.
The brand registered 142 new cars for the quarter in NSW alone, placing it ahead of national sales figures recorded by the likes of Chrysler, Infiniti and Citroen for the same period.
Tesla may also have the measure of established brands including Alfa Romeo, according to number-crunching by Wheels magazine based on recall figures.
Unlike most car companies, Tesla does not publish sales data, making it difficult to gauge the brand’s success in Australia.
But the NSW registration data does offer a glimpse into how the brand is tracking.
Tesla is on target to double its number of cars in NSW in 12 months, breaking through the 1000 vehicle mark by the end of the year. A growing presence in other states should help it put a dent in luxury rivals such as Audi and BMW.
A new Model X SUV produced by the American company has helped increase its profile in Australia, which will grow further when the compact and more affordable Model 3 sedan arrives in 2019.
While brands on the rise have a growing presence in NSW, RMS data shows that the number of registered cars vehicles is falling for some marques.
There were 216 fewer Alfa Romeo cars on the road in July 2017 then there were in December 2016, suggesting that sales of new models such as the heavily-promoted Giulia are not enough to offset the number of older cars pulled off the road due to crashes, rust and reliability problems.
Alfa Romeo’s presence on NSW roads is dropping faster than Datsun’s, even though the Japanese marque has not sold a new car in decades. Citroen, Chevrolet and Cadillac are also going backwards.
Contrary to the doom-sayers, Elon Musk’s Tesla experiment is leading the push towards electrification and autonomous cars.
