Toyota Camry vs. Tesla Model 3 — Guess Who’s Winning in the Antipodes
TheDriven.io recently reported that sales figures for the Toyota Camry are being eclipsed by the Tesla Model 3 in Australia. Has everyone gone crazy? You can get a Camry for around $32,000, whereas the Model 3 costs around $60,000. That’s quite a Tesla stretch!
The Model 3 had 7400 sales in the Antipodes from January through July 2021, whereas the Camry had 7181.
Around the country, people are sharpening their pencils, getting out their calculators, and doing their sums. The price gap between the Camry and Tesla doesn’t take long to close when you realize that a Tesla Model 3 will drive as far on 1 kWh of electricity (costing 13 cents on tariff 33 — off peak) as a Camry will drive on a litre of petrol ($1.75 today, but perhaps $2 next week and $3 next year). The gap closes even faster if you look at servicing costs.
The Corolla sales figures (16,354) are twice those of the Model 3 — but for how long? Time to change the narrative. For too long we have heard of the coming “Tesla Killers” — we now have a Camry killer. How long till we have a Corolla killer?
In the last seven months, Australia’s uptake of EVs has doubled. This is despite federal opposition and before state incentives kick in next month. So, EV penetration has gone from just below 1% in 2020 to almost 2% in mid-2021. By next year, we will have BYDs driving along Australian highways. What will the percentage get to then? I remember when I was reading about this happening in some countries in Europe not that long ago.
2022 is shaping up to be a massive step forward in the rEVolution thanks to the introduction of more Chinese models, the Hyundai Ioniq 5, the Kia EV6, and the Polestar 2. This will give the buying public more choice, and Tesla won’t have to fight all the battles of the revolution on its own. I’m looking forward to 5% EV market share by the end of next year.
Sign up for CleanTechnica's Weekly Substack for Zach and Scott's in-depth analyses and high level summaries, sign up for our daily newsletter, and follow us on Google News!
Whether you have solar power or not, please complete our latest solar power survey.
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Sign up for our daily newsletter for 15 new cleantech stories a day. Or sign up for our weekly one on top stories of the week if daily is too frequent.
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
CleanTechnica's Comment Policy
