Tesla in Australia

[Mark E]

Was this the car that was in Canberra being passed for Australian roads?
Is the car able to drive on our roads yet?
Any indication on when test drive cars will come?
My old mans in Melbourne, so when a test drive is available there I'll fly over and go with him to check it out.

Yes.
No - waiting on registration
This will be a test car once it can be registered.
I suspect that the first test drives will be to reservation holders, especially those (like me) that have had a reservation for more than 2 years but have not driven a Model S yet!
I'd also expect that the demand for these will explode once the car is publicly available and pricing is announced. It will also be interesting to see how quickly the production run of RHD cars gets sold and what effect that has on availability.

 

[Sluggabed]

Australia has approx 250 orders I believe based upon sig and reported non sig reservations. This is without the car being on sale (no pricing), no shop front and very little press coverage.

I'm sure it's not as easy as I'm about to make about but please just let me have my little rant (wanting this car for an eternity). They could cover the initial Oz orders (being a very niche market [initially]) with as little as 3 days production (currently 600 cars/week) and get that initial kick to stir local interest and satisfy all the those currently with reservations. China on the other hand, we're looking at years of production (not including the US orders), even when they double the production rate as Tesla/Elon has stated by the end of next year to keep up with the demand. I can understand Tesla wanting to get into the bigger/massive market that is China but when you can't fore fill orders, you're just going to piss people off and they'll look elsewhere. It's years away before they can produce serious numbers to satisfy demand, so why stir up bigger markets before you can deliver.
Rant over

 

[timpoo]

I'm sure it's not as easy as I'm about to make about but please just let me have my little rant (wanting this car for an eternity). They could cover the initial Oz orders (being a very niche market [initially]) with as little as 3 days production (currently 600 cars/week) and get that initial kick to stir local interest and satisfy all the those currently with reservations. China on the other hand, we're looking at years of production (not including the US orders), even when they double the production rate as Tesla/Elon has stated by the end of next year to keep up with the demand. I can understand Tesla wanting to get into the bigger/massive market that is China but when you can't fore fill orders, you're just going to piss people off and they'll look elsewhere. It's years away before they can produce serious numbers to satisfy demand, so why stir up bigger markets before you can deliver.
Rant over

Agreed. The main reason though for tapping into the China market though is to 1. take advantage of the current hype around Tesla and also Elon himself in China, where he is worshipped more than Steve Jobs; 2. To get in ahead of China's own electric car powerhouse, who are currently doing it tough because of tough protectionist measures between provinces in China; 3. To get in ahead of the other luxury car brands.

Of course - it's also to chase where the money is, but their strategy is wrong - they must be able to meet demand over the medium term, or all that hype will be for nothing.

 

[heosat]

Agreed. The main reason though for tapping into the China market though is to 1. take advantage of the current hype around Tesla and also Elon himself in China, where he is worshipped more than Steve Jobs; 2. To get in ahead of China's own electric car powerhouse, who are currently doing it tough because of tough protectionist measures between provinces in China; 3. To get in ahead of the other luxury car brands.

Of course - it's also to chase where the money is, but their strategy is wrong - they must be able to meet demand over the medium term, or all that hype will be for nothing.

It's much easier for them to sign massive contracts for batteries when they have available demand, and those big purchase contracts are their biggest constraint right now.

 

[Dborn]

So, THE CAR!! It is MUCH nicer than i expected! Fit and finish are first class. The front seats are nice and comfortable, they do lack side support, but lumbar support is good. Steering column/stalks - anyone who has driven Merc - no issue. may take some getting used to for others, but i got used to my Merc easily enough back in the day. This car is the blue with black seats and alcantara ceiling - a loaded P85+. it is a lovely colour. it is not as yet registered so no test drives and only seen indoors. Wheels grey 21 turbines - look fantastic but i think regrettably, impractical on our nail infested streets (just had a nail out of a tyre yesterday, again).
A significant wrinkle - we may NOT be getting homelink!!! it was not installed on this vehicle. The touch screen is MUCH nicer than what i was expecting. it is very intuitive. very short learning curve. they had a working low power wall connector up and running. Very svelte. It goes to a type 2 connector but only single phase. The car, as is, can accept 3 phase, but Tesla does not, at present have an EVSE that supports 3phase. The type 2 connector does have 3 phase pins (if the source current from the EVSE supplies it). Use of say a Mennekes? Well, Tesla would have to certify it or they may be warranty issues.
According to Stone, and i truly believe he is as much in the dark as we are, deliveries should not be affected by the delay in price announcement. One of the things delaying pricing is that they are still deciding about supercharging, and of course according to Jerome, what to do about mobile charge cables. For Australia with our distances and lack of public charging infrastructure, this is a major issue. Not sure how far along they are to resolving the matter in their own minds. He still thinks late July August for first deliveries, but likely that is Tesla time. The only thing that that makes me think that it will happen then is that i will be overseas during August!!! That should be sufficient incentive for them to want to deliver during that time!!!
They are hoping to move the service centre/delivery centre to Alexandria, hopefully before first deliveries. it is a bit out of the way where it is now.
In summary, a lovely and well finished and polished car, with the lack of cabin storage which has been so well hashed over (and i am more convinced than ever that storage in a centre console is necessary). Difficult to believe that they started from a new production line in mid 2012. However, a RIGHT HAND DRIVE CAR IS A REALITY FOLKS - not just smoke and mirrors!! Also, it did not feel like your typical "American" car.

 

[doctorwho]

A significant wrinkle - we may NOT be getting homelink!!! it was not installed on this vehicle.

Homelink is a random thing to omit unless they needed special certification for it. Any company that sells 3rd party remote controls in a supermarket can do it though, why not Tesla? Perhaps remote doors operate on a different frequency here? Otherwise it sounds good

 

[Tasdevil]

That's why tesla recently had the "job fair" day.
Need more workers for the model X and Australasian market.

 

[timpoo]

Hi Dborn - so I'm guessing that we still have no clue when pricing will be announced?

 

[alexeiw123]

Homelink is a random thing to omit unless they needed special certification for it. Any company that sells 3rd party remote controls in a supermarket can do it though, why not Tesla? Perhaps remote doors operate on a different frequency here? Otherwise it sounds good

I agree, very odd. And something very appealing about the car too. I made a 12V hardwired garage door opener button for my current car as the battery one annoyed me being anywhere (with a proximity key).

 

[Dborn]

Homelink is a random thing to omit unless they needed special certification for it. Any company that sells 3rd party remote controls in a supermarket can do it though, why not Tesla? Perhaps remote doors operate on a different frequency here? Otherwise it sounds good

Apparently our frequencies are different. I was actually looking for it and asked about it.

- - - Updated - - -

Hi Dborn - so I'm guessing that we still have no clue when pricing will be announced?

Nope, no clue at all! I think if you listen to the earnings call, Elon does state that they want to avoid charging issues mistakes made on introduction to other markets - they want a superb customer experience. (or words to that effect). So who knows?

 

[meloccom]

Apparently our frequencies are different. I was actually looking for it and asked about it.

That seems odd as the Home link Compatibility document lists many frequencies

 

[Mark E]

That seems odd as the Home link Compatibility document lists many frequencies

So what door openers will Homelink actually work with? I have a B&D which has it's own secure remotes - I've never seen any detail on home link in Australia. Has anyone actually used it in a car here? With a B&D?

 

[Dborn]

So what door openers will Homelink actually work with? I have a B&D which has it's own secure remotes - I've never seen any detail on home link in Australia. Has anyone actually used it in a car here? With a B&D?

Have written to homelink to ask if there is an issue with Australia..

 

[Lerxt]

Tesla has Australia right where it should be priority wise. The reality is that it is a lot more than about selling cars. The infrastructure need doing, and it's complicated. You need to ask yourself what the benefit of Tesla giving Australia a higher priority would be? After all, they see a government that thinks Global Warming is "crap" and hates windmills, perhaps they think people think that as well..?

 

[Mark E]

Have written to homelink to ask if there is an issue with Australia..

Wondering if they can actually do the code hopping B&D remotes!
From B&D..
"most current garage door openers operate on a single 433mhz frequency with a wide reception bandwidth. unfortunately many other household products also operate on the same frequency. Every day items like baby monitors, door bells and some domestic and in car wireless entertainment systems. And they don’t have
to be in your home. they can be in your neighbour’s home.
If one of these items is being used in your area, or is malfunctioning, it has the potential to interfere with the operation of your garage door opener. You will push the button on your opener transmitter, and nothing will happen. this can be very frustrating, when
you need your door to open/close, and it won’t.
to overcome this problem, which while localised is on the increase, all new B&D Controll-A-Door openers now feature unique tri-tran multi frequency operation. tri-tran has an automatic frequency change function, with each of its three frequencies transmitted having a much tighter bandwidth. the frequency changes every 22ms during a transmission and reception. so if there is another signal interfering on
a part of this frequency spectrum, the automatic change ensures the signal still reaches the opener. this makes tri-tran up to one thousand times better, in terms of
in band interference rejection, than a typical Fm receiver, and up to a million times better than
some Am receivers."

 

[Sluggabed]

Tesla has Australia right where it should be priority wise. The reality is that it is a lot more than about selling cars. The infrastructure need doing, and it's complicated. You need to ask yourself what the benefit of Tesla giving Australia a higher priority would be? After all, they see a government that thinks Global Warming is "crap" and hates windmills, perhaps they think people think that as well..?

Yep, Chinas the place for looking after the environment. First rule of political agenda in Australia, to represent the people who pay their bills, big business. Hence the environmental/global warming stand.

 

[doctorwho]

There was one model of Discovery that had repeated instances of the car not starting. Eventually they traced it down to the frequency of particular shopfront automatic doors that, if you were unfortunately to unsuspectingly park close enough, immobilised the car electronics. One of my friends was unfortunate enough to experience this repeatedly. He never bought another Discovery.

 

[Isbrown]

So, THE CAR!! It is MUCH nicer than i expected! Fit and finish are first class. The front seats are nice and comfortable, they do lack side support, but lumbar support is good. Steering column/stalks - anyone who has driven Merc - no issue. may take some getting used to for others, but i got used to my Merc easily enough back in the day. This car is the blue with black seats and alcantara ceiling - a loaded P85+. it is a lovely colour. it is not as yet registered so no test drives and only seen indoors. Wheels grey 21 turbines - look fantastic but i think regrettably, impractical on our nail infested streets (just had a nail out of a tyre yesterday, again).
A significant wrinkle - we may NOT be getting homelink!!! it was not installed on this vehicle. The touch screen is MUCH nicer than what i was expecting. it is very intuitive. very short learning curve. they had a working low power wall connector up and running. Very svelte. It goes to a type 2 connector but only single phase. The car, as is, can accept 3 phase, but Tesla does not, at present have an EVSE that supports 3phase. The type 2 connector does have 3 phase pins (if the source current from the EVSE supplies it). Use of say a Mennekes? Well, Tesla would have to certify it or they may be warranty issues.
According to Stone, and i truly believe he is as much in the dark as we are, deliveries should not be affected by the delay in price announcement. One of the things delaying pricing is that they are still deciding about supercharging, and of course according to Jerome, what to do about mobile charge cables. For Australia with our distances and lack of public charging infrastructure, this is a major issue. Not sure how far along they are to resolving the matter in their own minds. He still thinks late July August for first deliveries, but likely that is Tesla time. The only thing that that makes me think that it will happen then is that i will be overseas during August!!! That should be sufficient incentive for them to want to deliver during that time!!!
They are hoping to move the service centre/delivery centre to Alexandria, hopefully before first deliveries. it is a bit out of the way where it is now.
In summary, a lovely and well finished and polished car, with the lack of cabin storage which has been so well hashed over (and i am more convinced than ever that storage in a centre console is necessary). Difficult to believe that they started from a new production line in mid 2012. However, a RIGHT HAND DRIVE CAR IS A REALITY FOLKS - not just smoke and mirrors!! Also, it did not feel like your typical "American" car.

Glad to know that seeing the Model S in the flesh has helped you get your excitement back, Dborn! I spoke to Stone the other day who confirmed that the charging issues are the main cause for the delay. I think they will release the car with wall chargers only with a promise to supply the mobile charger at a later date. Ok by me if this is what they do. I am hoping for pricing by end of next week. I think this will be the earliest possible date.

 

[salamagd]

Tesla has Australia right where it should be priority wise. The reality is that it is a lot more than about selling cars. The infrastructure need doing, and it's complicated. You need to ask yourself what the benefit of Tesla giving Australia a higher priority would be? After all, they see a government that thinks Global Warming is "crap" and hates windmills, perhaps they think people think that as well..?

FFS, all you ever do is come in here and bag Australia. Piss off back to your own forum.

 

[spentan]

FFS, all you ever do is come in here and bag Australia. Piss off back to your own forum.

I think the tensions in this thread are running high.

Tbh I'm not optimistic about Aussie pricing/deliveries. Reading about the Q1 results, there are mentions of RHD markets but they were UK and Japan (iirc).

All I can say is that the car is unbelievably better than you all expect. So the wait will definitely be worth it.