Why even Tesla can't sell in Australia?

The Electric Car Industry has been gathering a lot of interest across the world. Especially in the richer nations of the World. This has been seen across in the increasing sales in the US, China, Germany, France, and the European Union.

Tesla and the other major Electric Vehicle Majors have been getting rapid traction in these richer economies. However, one exception to this is … Australia. In Australia, EV sales are just not picking up. Battery-powered vehicles make up just 0.7% of Australia’s new vehicle sales. Even tractors sell the EV’s two to one.

This resistance, to shift to the EV platform, has irked the global auto majors. They are delaying or skipping the launch of EVs in Australia and launching the same in markets that are more aggressive in acceptance of EV technology and also offering incentives for the same.

Volkswagen AG has expressed its disappointment on the slow speed of acceptance and likened Australia’s policies to that of third world countries. Australia’s ranking would be in the bottom 20 group of nations when it comes to decarbonizing road transport. Even countries like Indonesia and Turkey are ahead of Australia. This could be due to the conservative government policies in Australia, the stifling growth of the EV industry, and the Global Car Industry which has laid out ambitious plans for increasing the contribution of EVs in their product mix.

Without encouraging subsidies, the price has become a major obstacle for enabling the EV transition. EV sales in Australia could pick up when they are able to match their price with the traditional cars. However, the demand pick-up is expected to be slow.

Government policies too have contributed to the EV industry not receiving the thumbs up from the Australian public. The government has refused to commit to a net-zero target for emission. This has caused international isolation but helped him on the domestic level. He has always favored fossil fuel-based industry.

There is very little clarity on the certainty of the EV policy and also, as of now, very few EVs on the roads. And but for the densely populated eastern seaboard, there are very few charging stations in the Northern Territory and Tasmania, to induce a sense of confidence in the customers on the charging infrastructure.