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DunkenKBliths


MULTI-BILLION dollar US entity Tesla could advance its plans to enter the Adelaide market if the right incentives come its way, it has told the state government.
The company which set up a presence in Australia last year is concentrating on the Sydney and Melbourne markets purely because of the population base, Tesla’s marketing manager Heath Walker told The Advertiser ahead of his presentation to the international driverless conference today.
“Adelaide is on the radar in the cities to come but what could help advance our move here is obviously more people buying our cars but also any government support would assist us.
“We have been talking to the government around things like infrastructure support like super chargers to join Adelaide to Melbourne, setting up charging ports around city locations.
“It could be something as simple as transit lane use or bus lane use because at the core of it, we want our owners to gain benefits.”
Tesla has superchargers installed on the Melbourne-Sydney route where Tesla owners can charge their cars for free during long-distance travels. All the owners have wall charges in their homes for overnight charging of their cars.
He said conversations with the state government had “progressed” with representatives visiting the company’s Freemont facility in the US this year.
“Also what we have done in the autonomous space with our autopilot feature and hopefully with things starting to move in the Tesla energy battery space, which is coming to Australia soon, we hope things will be accelerated.”
Elon Musk’s Tesla, which reported quarterly revenues of US$937 million this week, is leading global efforts on sustainability through its electric cars and energy businesses.
It is close to selling 100,000 of its electric cars globally, each of them custom-built at a price of around the $120,000 mark.
A Tesla loyalist since 2009, SA businessman Simon Hackett has just taken delivery of a Tesla Model S P85D, which he described as “the future-on-wheels today”.
“I believe the state government should offer some material incentives to Tesla to install their ‘Supercharger’ ultra-fast charging stations on the highway from Adelaide to Melbourne, which would encourage more Tesla ownership in Adelaide.
“That, in turn, would help to drive a future decision by Tesla to open up in their own right here,” he said.
“These vehicles are the most advanced zero emission vehicles in the world and they work brilliantly here. There should be more of them, and more of this, in our future. “
Both Mr Walker and Mr Hackett called for broader reforms on the tax front.
“To date, Australian governments (state and federal) - in contrast to almost every other first world country - have offered no incentive for people to buy and drive zero emission cars,” Mr Hackett said.
“Meanwhile the federal luxury car tax punishes electric vehicle ownership, rather than supporting it. As is the case in most other countries, our federal government should offer tax breaks for zero emission car ownership, and state governments should offer better registration rates for driving them.”
Mr Walker said governments had an opportunity there to remove the tax and advance people into sustainable transport options.
Transport Minister Stephen Mullighan said 10 per cent of the privat cars in California are electric.
“We are keen to understand from Tesla what government incentives have been introduced and which ones were most effective in the event that we consider introducing any sort of incentive scheme to encourage the uptake of lower emission and/or electric vehicles in South Australia,” he said.