Tesla prepares for Australian Model 3 deliveries

Tonight the Tesla website was updated to allow those who’ve ordered a vehicle to complete the necessary details for delivery. With this completed, a final invoice will be generated and a delivery manager will call to arrange the all important delivery/pickup date of the Model 3.

Logging in now reveals additional entry boxes for delivery location, Trade-in, Registration and Payment.

Delivery Location

This section is really straight forward, just your address which is verified to be a real address. Take note, that given Australia is a large country, entering your address here does not mean Tesla is delivering the car to your door, rather that it provides them the location details of where you are.

As someone who lives in Wodonga (around 350km from Melbourne), I expect to have to travel to Melbourne to collect the car from the Tesla Richmond Store.

Friend of techAU, Long Zheng reported that after entering his address, a ‘pickup location’ was shown as the Melbourne store. Personally I didn’t see this, only references to delivery, however I still expect the delivery manager will as me to go to Melbourne to pickup the car.

Trade-in

I had planned to trade my existing car into Tesla. Given how most trade-in offers go, I expected the price to be below what I could get privately for the vehicle, but the first question was, did Tesla even want the car?

I have a 2005 Mitsubishi Lancer that has low km, just 140,000 after more than 13yrs. The problem is the clear coat has recently broken up. This didn’t exactly match with Tesla’s brief on the website that the car had no major cosmetic or mechanical issues. I decided that rather than try and have it rejected and have that potentially blow out delivery times, I backed out of the trade-in and will no sell privately.

If you do trade to Tesla, you’re asked to upload photos 2 exterior photos from specific anlges and 1 internal photo, also from a very specific angle.

Registration

One of the big questions of the Model 3 delivery was around registration plates. Last week I confirmed we’d all be getting slimline plates front and back, but what about those who have custom plates.

The configuration actually allows for the default ‘Premium (White on black)’ or used Custom Plates, or New Custom Plates. While I’d love custom plates, that’s a fairly unnecessary cost and one that again may cause delays due to VicRoads etc.

Update
After sharing this online I discovered that the custom plate option seems to be available in Victorian and Queensland only. As for other states, you’ll be getting standard plates,

The standard plates for each state are:

• NSW – standard premium plates – black on white
• ACT – as it is self registration you decide what plates you want
• VIC – standard premium – white on black (slimline)
• QLD – standard plates – maroon on white
• SA – basic plates – black on white (large)
• WA – basic plates – blue on white (large)
• TAS – basic plates – Blue on white (large)
• NT – self registration so you will be able to decide what plates you want

Payment

Finally we have to pay for this car. There were 3 options, Cash, Credit and Loan through Tesla. Personally I’m paying cash (ultimately EFT), so that was an easy choice, for those using credit, there’s certainly going to be more questions to complete.

Overall the experience was quick, straight forward and the hardest part was taking a photo of your ID (still very easy).

This is one big, important step closer to the arrival of Model 3’s in Australia and I’m quite enjoying the new, modern way of buying a car online.

The final confirmation page details the final steps, including organising insurance. It also references links to their Learn section which provides videos for customers to get familiar with the car before they receive it.

Interestingly Autopilot is featured there, no doubt an effort to address what was highlighted during the recent earnings call – the single biggest reason for service calls to Tesla is a lack of understand of how to use Autopilot.

Interestingly the Owner’s manual for Australia, linked from the last tile, still shows imagery from LHD vehicles.