Waiting a Tesla Model 3? You can wait a little longer than initially expected.
Shipping tracker The head of the Vedas Tesla Australia reports that “sales consultants are slowly ringing and emailing everyone to expect delivery in the second half of the year”.
Customers on social media have been contacted by a Tesla spokesman to confirm that their orders have been returned.
It is not clear when the delayed orders will touch in the second half.
The waiting times for orders for the new Tesla Model 3 have recently ended, three weeks from October 2021 to six to nine months from March 2022 and 12 months before May 2022.
Orders for the Model 3 are still open, and all variants sold in Australia are made in China.
Tesla has been hit by a lockdown in China, which forced it to close its gigafactory in Shanghai.
It is now operating in closed-loop shifts, where workers sleep on the factory floor to reduce movement and are not expected to return to full speed for at least another week.
Despite the supply challenges, the Tesla Model 3 is the best-selling electric car in Australia by 2022. So far 4469 deliveries have been made locally.
However, facing the supply crisis, Tesla is far from alone. With both Kia and Hyundai severely restricting their supply of flagship electric vehicles, Polyester was forced to discontinue its online configuration earlier this year, and the Volvo XC40 recharge range sold out quickly after opening orders in 2021.
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