Tesla to take on Toyota: The bold push to rumble the RAV4 Hybrid with the new Model Y Juniper
Tesla appears unfazed by the brand’s sales slump in Australia – and the rest of the world – suggesting the new Model Y will be “gunning for” the country’s top-selling hybrid SUVs like the Toyota RAV4 and Hyundai Santa Fe.
To say it’s been a tough 2025 for Tesla would be a significant understatement.
Tesla sales, and profits, have tumbled since company chief Elon Musk tied himself to the climate-change-denying Trump administration in the USA.
Musk was subsequently accused of mimicking Nazi salutes at a rally to celebrate the president’s election win – just one of the many controversial moments that have marred Tesla’s public image this year.
Globally, profits plummeted 71 per cent over the first quarter of 2025, while vehicles deliveries fell by 12.9 per cent over the same period.
In Australia, the delivery data makes for even harder reading, with sales down 75 per cent in April, year on year – albeit with the brand’s best-selling vehicle in run-out as the new Model Y neared launch.
But if Thom Drew, Country Director for Tesla Australia, is worried, he’s not showing it, insisting demand for the new Model Y is strong, and that models like the RAV4 and Santa Fe remain in his sights.
“Our goal has always been to take ICE cars off the road,” he says.
“I know it might sound like a long shot, but we’re still gunning for the likes of the RAV4 and Santa Fe and all those other ICE and hybrid vehicles that are being sold.
“The RAV4 is obviously a vehicle that speaks to young families and so on, and we think that Model Y is absolutely applicable to the vast majority of people that are buying particularly those top-end RAV4s.
“There is a really strong competitor in Model Y being able to suit the needs of those customers. And we want to do a really good job of convincing those people that they can do that today.”
But first, Tesla will need to reclaim its position as the best-selling EV in Australia, a title it lost last month to the BYD Sealion 7.
But Drew is quick to point out the current sales slump was expected, and the company’s true position would only become clear once deliveries of the new Model Y commenced in early May.
“We’ve been saying it since the beginning of the year that we’ve had a gap since we started taking orders, which was in January, for the new Model Y,” he says.
“We’ve been selling through our run-out stock of the existing Model Y, and deliveries of this vehicle actually start (now).
“(Order) look very healthy. We’ve had a really good response, particularly with the launch series that we started with. So yeah, we’re in a good position.”
