Oops… Tesla busted inflating sales figures by adding two years
The Tesla Model 3 is a popular EV – but not quite as popular as Tesla made out.
One day after announcing Tesla sold 15,054 cars in 2021, the Electric Vehicle Council of Australia has issued a corrected figure of 12,094 vehicles.
The corrected figures show Tesla inflated its sales figures by almost 25 percent.
Tesla is to blame
The EV Council blamed the error on Tesla, which supplied its local sales figures for the first time – after years of refusing to reveal how many vehicles it sold.
A press release issued this morning quoted an EV Council spokesperson and said Tesla had added 2020 and 2021 sales figures together.
“There was an error in the numbers the EVC was provided relating to Tesla deliveries. Due to a human error, the Tesla delivery figures for 2020 were erroneously added to the delivery figures for 2021 by Tesla before the figure was provided to the EVC. So instead of 15,054 Tesla Model 3 deliveries in 2021, the figure reported should have been 12,094.”
The true figures… hopefully
The Model 3 is still by far the top selling EV in the country and it still outsells all other EVs combined.
But the correct 12,094 sales figure is somewhat less impressive.
The correction drops the Model 3 from the 14th best selling car on the market to the 26th best selling (of about 350 models).
That drops it behind the Toyota Camry and Mazda3, but still keeps it ahead of some big players, including the Subaru Forester, Toyota Kluger, Kia Sportage, Volkswagen Amarok and Ford Everest.
Sales of battery electric vehicles in Australia in 2021
| Rank | Model | 2021 Australian sales | % change on 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tesla Model 3 | 12,094 | +284% |
| 2 | MG ZS EV | 1388 | - |
| 3 | Porsche Taycan | 531 | - |
| 4 | Hyundai Kona Electric | 505 | +3.5% |
| 5 | Nissan Leaf | 367 | -0.8% |
| 5 | Mercedes-Benz EQA | 367 | - |
| 7 | Hyundai Ioniq | 339 | -1.5% |
| 8 | Mercedes-Benz EQC | 298 | +54% |
| 9 | Mini Electric Hatch | 291 | +210% |
| 10 | Kia Niro Electric | 217 | - |
| 11 | Volvo XC40 Pure Electric | 207 | - |
| 12 | Hyundai Ioniq 5 | 172 | - |
| 13 | Audi e-Tron | 108 | +69% |
| 14 | BMW i3 | 67 | +24% |
| 15 | Mazda MX-30 | 63 | - |
| 16 | BMW iX3 | 62 | - |
| 17 | Renault Kangoo | 45 | +221% |
| 18 | Jaguar I-Pace | 44 | -37% |
| 19 | Lexus UX300e | 43 | - |
| 20 | BMW iX | 35 | - |
| TOTAL EV SALES FOR 2021 | 17,243 | +226% |
