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Tesla Model 3 in Australia
- Thread starter Electric_Blue
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- Australia Model 3 New Zealand
Candleflame
Active Member
you need to be pretty speced out to pay luxury tax.
Unlikely to have to pay that with RWD, long range, premium upgrade, paint job upgrade only.
EVs get a discount as they use less than 6L of fuel/100km.
There are rumored to be somewhere around 7000 Model 3 reservations in Australia. By mid next year, Tesla could easily make that in 1 week. However they would not do that, since those 7000 would be a mix of specifications hence inefficient to make all at once.
But once tooled up for RHD, Tesla would presumably make all the RHD variants in value sequence for all the UK, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong etc orders. It would take them around 6-8 weeks to do it - a total of around 50,000 RHD Model 3s. So someone in Australia who orders a Performance Model 3 in March 2019 will get their car at about the same time as someone who made a reservation in March 2016.
You’d need to order a Performance Model 3 or something similarly highly spec’d to trigger LCT (or have the $A sink to USD 0.50). Even then, LCT will slowly kick in as the AUD value goes over $75.5k. It’s not like all of a sudden you’re paying $5k more simply by going $1 other the LCT threshold.
As to whether LCT is “unfair and discriminatory”, at least it’s a tax that higher income earners who fell compelled to buy expensive cars as a status symbol can’t avoid, while lower income earners can entirely avoid by not buying expensive cars. Sounds fairer to me than the reverse. LCT certainly hasn’t slowed the sales of luxury cars over the past decade, as BMW, Audi, Mercedes and the likes continually boast about how many cars they sell here and how impressive their sales growth is.
If anything, to make it less “discriminatory”, LCT should be extended to all luxury discretionary goods that cost above a certain percentile for that product category, and include boats and yachts, designer jewelry and clothes, etc so that expensive cars are not singled out.
Candleflame
Active Member
Also probably worth adding that in Australia it is much cheaper to operate a car due to insurance being very cheap. At least in QLD it is.
I hope you guys are right, but judging by the estimates posted on the previous page, it would be very easy to go over $75k for a long range car with a few options.
lonewolf313
Member
Even at the current exchange rate of 0.71c. Any Aussie bought Model 3 spec'd above (Mid Range without Autopilot) will attract some LCT costs
nigwil
P3D-
7,000 really!?! that makes me happy!
on that basis there would have to be at least double-digits here in Tassie: if we have more than a dozen here then it will start at least a 10-fold increase in conversations about BEVs...that will be a dramatic leap forward in getting the Tasmanian community more involved with BEVs and greater electrification of our energy mix.
Given a mid-2019 introduction of the Tesla Model 3 I expect 2020 will be the year that Australia overall starts to get EV-fever.
I just happened to spend time on our Bass Strait ferry, things will be so much more comfortable when most of the travellers have BEV, no more being gassed by poorly maintained ICE vehicles in the close-confines of a sea-going vessel.
Well, it is just a rumour, Tesla is the only one who knows. A rep at the Martin Place Tesla store told me there were 10,000 Model 3 reservations here. But often Tesla reps say stuff that isn’t true, because they don’t know either, so take it with a grain of salt.
But if the number is anything like that, it will be massive. It would increase the National fleet of BEVs by a factor of 4 in one hit.
Shock-On-T
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lonewolf313
Member
Just reading about the long queues for reservation holders on the 21st Aug when Tesla in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane opened its doors to the Model 3 (I waited more than 2 hrs in the Sydney queue) makes me believe that the number may be more than 10,000.
Think about all the people who did not see the Model 3 on that day who are reservation holders simply because they lived too far away or did not have the time to view the car on that day
nigwil
P3D-
definitely! I was dismayed to see the stack of pipes belching while I enjoyed an half on the stern cruising out of picturesque Devonport.Will be even better when the ferry itself is electric!
NSW model 3 calculator
I've posted my spreadsheet for NSW pricing a few times but it's still relevant: Using reasonable assumptions based on Model S/X price book, the minimum spec available for order now (mid range, no extras at 0.71 AUD/USD) attracts about $100 of LCT.
Candleflame
Active Member
LCT was afaik brought in to protect the Australian car industry and not to generate tax income.
Chuq
Active Member
Will be even better when the ferry itself is electric!
They are absolutely massive ships but, I hate to say it, I don't think we are going to see electric ones anytime soon. However TT-Line are awesome supporters of EVs, they sponsored the AEVA Conference in 2017 when it was in Devonport. They are very supportive and forward thinking. I can't wait for their two new ships, currently being custom designed and built for them at the moment to go into service in 2021
Shock-On-T
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That’s my understanding too. They could get rid of it now, but it’s a bit like the harbour bridge toll. Hard to say no to free money.
As for adding LCT on other luxury items, that is the point of the GST. It automatically scales up as the price goes up, and price is the main measure of luxury, so I think it’s the best way to progressively tax the rich.
I met an American Tesla owner by chance the other day, and we had a wry laugh at the fact that in the US you are subsidised for going EV, whereas here you are actively penalised by an out-of-date tax.
TezzaB
Member
That was definitely part of the original justification for the tax but of course once government have a an income stream they are very reluctant to give it up unless there are a lot of votes in it for them. I know there was some talk a while ago that the Europeans wanted the government to phase out LCT as part of the free trade discussions as it obviously has a much bigger impact on the European manufacturers than Asian ones but I have no idea whether that is still on the table??
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