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Tesla Model 3 in Australia

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I think what is happening here is Tesla is trying to handle a one time surge of business using existing staffing.
I don't think it's likely that they will be delivering hundreds or even thousands of vehicles every month going forward.
I can understand why they would do that and I hope and believe that the current service levels will improve once the rush has abated.

You'd hope so, the service levels surely couldn't get much worse.
 
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I also doubt there will be that much competition by the time the Y arrives...have a look at VW and their ID series....earliest is 2022 in Australia and I'd say that is optimistic given their previous time frames.
Definitely 2021. Thanks to Shanghai GF3, this is one model that Tesla have underestimated on
The car will also be the simplest & cheapest to manufacture & they have the experience of the M3 platform
 
Definitely 2021. Thanks to Shanghai GF3, this is one model that Tesla have underestimated on
The car will also be the simplest & cheapest to manufacture & they have the experience of the M3 platform
I suspect 2021 for Y in Aus is a bit optimistic. Y will be more popular in US and EU also and GF3 production at least for a couple of years will most likely be all bought up locally there. I would not recommend hoping for a Y here before 2022. Also VW ID here in 2022 is a bit optimistic, as I suspect they overestimate their production ramp like all the rest, so for them 2023 might be more realistic to reach us.
 
They've brought on new staffing recently so I think it's more that they left it late rather than not taking them on and perhaps they hadn't figured on the logistics of Australia (low pop, massive land area).
Sorry, but they don't get a pass on that (the logistics). They've had a presence in Australia since at least December 2014 (when the Model S became available here). If decisions were made from the US without at least consulting the local staff, it's inexcusable. This stuff should not have been a huge surprise. (Although I can, to a certain extent, give them some leeway for stuffing up the Tasmanian deliveries - but even there, it's the sort of thing you sound out early, not at the last minute, to make sure you don't miss a trick.)

Not to mention that that low population is only when you look at aggregate population and land mass. A large chunk of that population is along the eastern seaboard, which is a much easier area to handle in that respect.

All of this, though, is exacerbated by the appallingly bad communication. (I've lost count of how many times I've harped on this point.) There's a lot that customers can, and will, forgive - as long as they're kept informed. As a friend said, "I'm actually willing to put up with quite a lot of delay and re-scheduling as long as I'm told about it early, instead of when I call or show up looking for it/them." It's also a lot easier for customers to work around delays with advance warning.

There comes a point during the process when it becomes obvious that the date is going to slip. The more it's going to slip, the sooner that point arrives. (Slip by a day? You might not realise until the prior day. Slip by a week? It's most likely going to be obvious a week or two ahead. Slip by a month? I'd expect that to be apparent no less than a month or two beforehand.) If you simply acknowledge the slippage to the customer and give them an updated ETA as soon as it's apparent, it's a lot easier to handle it than if you say the day before, "Oh. We can't do that date. How about <some date six months away> instead?" (I exaggerate, but only to illustrate the point.)

Right now, based upon whispers I've heard, I'm guessing my LR AWD will be in my hands by the end of October, rather than the original September date indicated to me at order time. If they'd told me that in late August - and I would have expected them to have a reasonable knowledge of that slippage by then - I could have planned accordingly. But I still do not have anything official beyond that "September" date. That lack of communication is going to cause Tesla a fair amount of damage in the long run, because there's plenty of people who would have been evangelists for the product that will now be saying instead, "Weeeeeeeeell.... it's a nice car, but ..."
 
I'm not giving them a pass and I suspect some of what you are proposing is the case re: internal comms up and down the chain and lack of staff, particularly given they have no staff in WA or Tasmania.

Think they are doing "ok" in Sydney and Melbourne but in Tasmania and WA seems to be an epic fail

I agree with you completely on the comms, plenty of people defending it as common practice in the industry for imported vehicles but Tesla cuts across traditional car demos (though there are those that will say that is unfounded). Not only on the website but via phone I was told August for mine when I ordered on July 1 and its looking like October, was told Performance's would get priority because Tesla wanted them seen (the data suggests that the SR+ are more likely to get into an owner's hand simply because they've sold and shipped more of them), and so on. Also, at this point in Australia ALL vehicles are imports.

I've been proactive by emailing and found them to be responsive to emails, others have found they can't get through on the phone, so that has helped in my case in that I've felt I've had the comms I need. But I have had to be proactive about it and I made suitable arrangements around my current car because, being a follower of Tesla for years, I had no misconceptions that getting the car out to me in WA would be a bit of an ordeal.

"Weeeeeeeeell.... it's a nice car, but ..."
Totes.
 
I suspect 2021 for Y in Aus is a bit optimistic. Y will be more popular in US and EU also and GF3 production at least for a couple of years will most likely be all bought up locally there. I would not recommend hoping for a Y here before 2022. Also VW ID here in 2022 is a bit optimistic, as I suspect they overestimate their production ramp like all the rest, so for them 2023 might be more realistic to reach us.
All the traditional car makers need to lock in contracts for battery supply.
I’ve read VW has done this but many other car manufacturers left twiddling their thumbs.
Personally I think the winners are going to be the car companies that have move on batteries now.
Tesla saw this issue years ago and started building Giga Factories.
 
I suspect 2021 for Y in Aus is a bit optimistic. Y will be more popular in US and EU also and GF3 production at least for a couple of years will most likely be all bought up locally there. I would not recommend hoping for a Y here before 2022. Also VW ID here in 2022 is a bit optimistic, as I suspect they overestimate their production ramp like all the rest, so for them 2023 might be more realistic to reach us.

I think with the ID3 the problem will probably be VW Au as much as anything else. Buyers have been able to reserve in the UK at the same time as mainland Europe (which I know doesn't mean much) but you would think that indicates potential for starting RHD production at the same time or shortly after LHD. VW Au has refused to offer the e-Golf and Golf GTE here (which would sell if they had) giving the excuse that there was no demand for them (even though in far smaller RHD markets you could order them fine). I called them a few months ago to ask about reserving an ID3 and the "manager" I spoke to was not even aware of the car so that tells you the level of "giving a s***" that they currently have.

Having said that, remember that VW won't have the logistics issues that Tesla has. Beyond making the car, they are much better set up to deliver thousands of cars in a short period of time from Europe than Tesla is. Despite that though it's still gonna be a niche car here as I don't think we'll see a high ICE-->EV conversion rate with Aussie buyers for some time.
 
Pleasantly surprised to get a call this afternoon as I was driving home - Tesla with a time for pickup of my blue P3- at Alexandria the afternoon of Saturday 28th. Ironically my Bluetooth wouldn’t work and so I had to rely on sub par speaker audio from my phone - but no way was I letting that call drop out by trying to get BT to connect. Now I’m more nervous before receiving a call that they’ll change the time. Vin 4883xx.
 
All the traditional car makers need to lock in contracts for battery supply.
I’ve read VW has done this but many other car manufacturers left twiddling their thumbs.
Personally I think the winners are going to be the car companies that have move on batteries now.
Tesla saw this issue years ago and started building Giga Factories.
Well Audi and Porsche are in the same group with VW and they are having difficulty keeping to their timelines and ramping up, so I would suspect same applies to VW. With Audi they complained that even though they had contracts about batteries they were short on supply, it is likely that the suppliers have oversubscribed their production as they have signed contracts with multiple car manufacturers and in the end will be still be constrained. Eventually the manufacturing capacity will catch up, but I suspect the initial push will have delays as the battery manufacturers will need to increase their production and they hope to sell some from current production capacity to finance that and so on...
 
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because there's plenty of people who would have been evangelists for the product that will now be saying instead, "Weeeeeeeeell.... it's a nice car, but ..."

I'm not excusing Tesla's comms and delivery shambles, but I don't agree with you. Once you get your car and drive it, you will think it is the greatest car ever and in a month's time you'll be singing the virtues of Tesla. Once this initial delivery tsunami is over, deliveries will return to a more normal level, and there won't be the issues you are experiencing, so for future buyers (and I'd say anytime after the next 4 weeks) the "but..." is irrelevant.
 
Sorry, but they don't get a pass on that (the logistics). They've had a presence in Australia since at least December 2014 (when the Model S became available here). If decisions were made from the US without at least consulting the local staff, it's inexcusable. This stuff should not have been a huge surprise. (Although I can, to a certain extent, give them some leeway for stuffing up the Tasmanian deliveries - but even there, it's the sort of thing you sound out early, not at the last minute, to make sure you don't miss a trick.)

Not to mention that that low population is only when you look at aggregate population and land mass. A large chunk of that population is along the eastern seaboard, which is a much easier area to handle in that respect.

All of this, though, is exacerbated by the appallingly bad communication. (I've lost count of how many times I've harped on this point.) There's a lot that customers can, and will, forgive - as long as they're kept informed. As a friend said, "I'm actually willing to put up with quite a lot of delay and re-scheduling as long as I'm told about it early, instead of when I call or show up looking for it/them." It's also a lot easier for customers to work around delays with advance warning.

There comes a point during the process when it becomes obvious that the date is going to slip. The more it's going to slip, the sooner that point arrives. (Slip by a day? You might not realise until the prior day. Slip by a week? It's most likely going to be obvious a week or two ahead. Slip by a month? I'd expect that to be apparent no less than a month or two beforehand.) If you simply acknowledge the slippage to the customer and give them an updated ETA as soon as it's apparent, it's a lot easier to handle it than if you say the day before, "Oh. We can't do that date. How about <some date six months away> instead?" (I exaggerate, but only to illustrate the point.)

Right now, based upon whispers I've heard, I'm guessing my LR AWD will be in my hands by the end of October, rather than the original September date indicated to me at order time. If they'd told me that in late August - and I would have expected them to have a reasonable knowledge of that slippage by then - I could have planned accordingly. But I still do not have anything official beyond that "September" date. That lack of communication is going to cause Tesla a fair amount of damage in the long run, because there's plenty of people who would have been evangelists for the product that will now be saying instead, "Weeeeeeeeell.... it's a nice car, but ..."

Completely agree with your post. 100%.

Some evangelists (here and on FB groups) chastise people for complaining but don't actually understand your point which is that people aren't upset that the cars are late. People are upset about the complete lack of any communication whatsoever about when their car will arrive. As you've pointed out, for a self proclaimed tech company it shouldn't be hard to devise a system which puts orders in a queue and live updates as deliveries happen. A 15yo coder could probably write code for it in a a few hours...
 
I'm not excusing Tesla's comms and delivery shambles, but I don't agree with you. Once you get your car and drive it, you will think it is the greatest car ever and in a month's time you'll be singing the virtues of Tesla. Once this initial delivery tsunami is over, deliveries will return to a more normal level, and there won't be the issues you are experiencing, so for future buyers (and I'd say anytime after the next 4 weeks) the "but..." is irrelevant.

I see your point, however disagree with you:
- There's reports of Model S and X buyers having exactly the same issues with communication so it's not just limited to the time of the tsunami.
- I already think this is the best car in it's class on the market right now hence I'm paying 117k to have it DESPITE the awful customer service. However next time I'm due a car, unless they have a product so far ahead of everyone else, this experience will deter me from considering Tesla.
- I disagree with "tsunami" as a descriptor. It implies a suprise event which nobody can adequately plan for. Reservations for the Model 3 opened in 2016. The number of orders is known at all times. First cars arrived here 2.5 months after order book opened. That's a lot of time to plan.
- Tesla needs more than a fluke of 3000 orders. If they're gonna appeal to the non-evangelist, non-fanboi, non-first adopter buyer the experience of buying an EV needs to be normalised. Good comms is far from rocket science, and given Tesla can do that, they can also plan better.
- Lastly - same shambles exist in Norway (one of Tesla's biggest markets) the UK and mainland Europe so...it would have been really easy to learn from those mistakes and not repeat them here.