Elon Musk should start manufacturing the Tesla Model S in Australia | Hacker News Reader

Elon Musk should start manufacturing the Tesla Model S in Australia

3 pointsD_Alex4 comments

Here is why:

1. Australia is a premium market for luxury cars. For example, the S-class M-Benz (Model S's rival as stated by Tesla) starts at $220,000 in Australia cf $90,000 in the US. 2. Australian driving patterns suit Model S very well. Vast majority of the driving occurs in the 5 main cities, intercity driving is rare. 3. Australia has a well developed auto components suplly industry... 4. ... a history of government support for the auto industry, currently focused on hybrid/electric vehicles 5. And one or two car making plants sitting idle.

Come on Tesla, buy the mothballed Ford plant, and make the nice Model S over here!

Is the economics of manufacturing and selling a car, even a luxury one, in Australia sustainable? Every year, the newspaper has stories about a government support. A cynic would say that this is their largest income source.

The market is small, mostly consist of city dwellers. There are only three car manufacturers in Australia (some would say that it is decreased to 2 with the troubles Ford are having). Having another one would not make much sense at all. I hope I am wrong on this as I would really want to see something like this succeed in Australia.

Australian car market is not small at all. In 2012, car sales were about 1.1 million. United Kingdom was 1.9 million by comparison, and although I cannot find specific data on the pre-tax cost of an average car, I am sure it is significantly higher in Australia.

Interesting to find out the percentage of Australian built cars in the 1.1 million cars. I doubt if UK will fair any better.

UK has several non-UK companies making cars here. According to those numbers (over different single years) UK factories made about 1.8m cars in 2007, as Nissan/etc make for Europe here. I imagine Australian factories only ship to the other parts of Oceania.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_industry_in_the_Unit...

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