Tesla a NZ Best Seller

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For the first time an electric vehicle has made the top sellers list in New Zealand. Tesla’s Model 3 sold 359 units in September making it the 7th biggest seller overall and 3rd in passenger vehicle sales behind Toyota’s Corolla and Yaris, both of which had their numbers boosted significantly by sales to rental car companies.

It’s not only big news for the EV industry but it’s also a significant result as the “budget” Tesla has an $80k price tag. $80,000 is big compared to the Corolla’s $30k RRP. And it’s unlikely that most of those Corollas sold for that much last month due to bulk rental car company purchases.

Despite Tesla entering the charts it seems unlikely it’s with a bullet. There has been a long wait time for pre-orders so it may be that all of those sales were filling orders placed over many months. Still, it’s a great result in a year that has seen record EV sales even though they still only account for a small fraction of new car sales.

In other news the Ute market is softening with the Ranger beaten to the top spot by, you guessed it, the Corolla.