Absolutely could, and have gone back. If we were overseas where there’s affordable options for electric it would be a different story but we live here, down under, where we have no options. Not all of us can afford a $60,000+ car Or want to buy one at that cost. We’re spoilt for choice with really good ICE options at around the $40K mark, and they’re getting better at emissions and features.
The cheapest Tesla option is a second hand S but we’re still taking $65-70K so that’s out of reach for most.
The Kona is a great option but seriously - that price! I can buy a petrol Kona for $25,000 with special low rate finance deals or a demo one for $22,000. The electric - $65,000! FFS I could buy two petrol ones and still have enough for years of fuel before I got to the price of the electric Kona. What else have we got - BMW, $$$, Jag $$$$, etc.
Down here the only sales pitch is that you have an electric car with good acceleration because you could buy a petrol and donate $10K to emissions offset or something and you’re still way ahead. And don’t get me started on charging infrastructure. Because we’re a tiny market we’re just not going to get the options they get overseas. So we won’t get the VW ID, the mini, the countless other cars they get overseas. The magic number here I reckon would be $35-40K. We had 650 Leafs brought in and when they tried to sell them for $65K they sat for years in dealers. Reduce them to $39,990 drive away and they sold. I would like to see a Chinese option come here for that sort of money and I think they would sell a lot of them, but at the huge costs with no incentives for everything else we just don’t have any choice.
. I live in Albo’s electorate of Grayndler, the smallest by area in Australia. Over 150,000 people in 32 km2. You could walk from one end of it to the other in about an hour.
