Tesla Model Y queues grow; electric SUV wait list extended within hours of going on sale

June 10, 2022June 25, 2022 Toby Hagon 4214 Views Tesla

The queue for the Tesla Model Y has already got longer just hours after orders opened.

The electric SUV only went on sale in Australia early this morning, but within hours Tesla had increased the estimated wait time by three months.

UPDATE: Tesla Model Y prices up by 5% – one week after it went on sale

When the Tesla Australia website was updated on Friday morning to finally take orders for the new EV it suggested would-be owners of the hotly anticipated new mid-sized SUV would be able to take delivery between August and November 2022 – between two and five months from the order time.

By late on Friday afternoon Tesla had increased that estimated delivery time to November 2022 to February 2023. So already the queue is out to five-to-eight months.

UPDATE: The Model Y wait times have grown further since we wrote this article. By Monday (three days after Tesla Australia started taking orders) the company was quoting delivery between February and May 2023. That means wait times of between eight and 11 months.

The Model Y is priced from $68,900 for the entry-level Rear-Wheel Drive model, which represents a $5000 premium over the equivalent Model 3 RWD. Similarly, the Model Y Performance is $5000 more expensive than its 3 equivalent, at $93,900 before on-road costs (click here for differences between Y and 3).

Tesla typically doesn’t respond to media queries so is unlikely to give an insight into how many Australian orders it has taken for the Model Y.

What a difference a few hours makes… Tesla Model Y wait times have already stretched out by three months within hours of it going on sale in Australia

But the Y will come from the same Chinese factory that has been supplying Model 3s since early 2021.

Given that factory has often been delivering more than 1000 Model 3s per month (the last couple of months has been much lower due to Covid-related production issues) it’s likely there have already been thousands of orders for the Y.

All of which suggests it could be a major player in the mid-sized premium SUV space.

Some industry executives are expecting the Model Y to be an EV game changer. Data and valuations expert Redbook believes it could even impact Model 3 prices.

Granted, Tesla is not alone in having big early interest in its cars.

Other EV brands have also experienced unexpectedly high interest in their electric cars: from the Kia EV6 and Hyundai Ioniq 5 to the Polestar 2 and upcoming Subaru Solterra, it appears there are many more buyers than cars available.

But that’s in part due to ludicrously low supply. Hyundai and Kia, for example, are getting less than 1000 cars in 2022.

And it’s unlikely any will be able to get them in anything like the numbers Tesla appears to be able to secure.