Elon Musk Sees High Demand For RHD Tesla Model Y In Oz, Fremont Factory Sets Production Record

When Tesla started taking orders for the Model Y in Japan, Singapore, New Zealand, and Australia four days ago, Elon Musk thought deliveries of the Long Range model would happen between August and November and deliveries of the Performance version would take place between November and next February.

But demand has been wildly, ecstatically exuberant, to the point that the Model Y is now sold out in Australia for 2022 and new orders are not expected to begin delivery for either model before February of next year. The high demand has even caught Musk by surprise. Although, why that would be is a bit of a mystery. He has often said he expects the Model Y to be the best selling electric car in the world by next year, and maybe even the best selling vehicle in the world in time.

The problem, of course, is that cars for the Australian market need to have their steering wheels on the right instead of the left and Tesla just doesn’t have that many RHD cars available.

All three versions of the Model 3 are also showing expected delivery dates sometime next year, which means you won’t be able to get a factory fresh Tesla of any type in the Antipodes until next year. That’s a problem a lot of other automakers wish they had.

Elon Musk Sees Room For Growth In Fremont

When the Fremont factory was building Toyotas and Pontiacs, it highest production milestone was 428,633 vehicles in 2006. Last year, Tesla produced 444,600 cars there. That’s impressive. Furthermore, Elon Musk thinks Tesla could produce 50% more vehicles at its Fremont factory than GM and Toyota produced there when it was theirs.

Musk did not say when such a milestone might be achieved or how he expects to get to that number. The Fremont factory is notoriously short of space, with employees fighting for parking spaces, but one should never doubt the indomitable Mr. Musk. His predictions have a way of coming true — if you are patient.

The new factory in Texas has a design capacity of one million vehicles a year — more than double the size of any other auto manufacturing facility in North America. No one can ever accuse Elon of not thinking big!