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Australia’s third-best selling new vehicle last month was the Tesla Model 3 sedan – which posted its second-best monthly sales on record.


The Tesla Model 3 was Australia’s third-best selling new motor vehicle outright last month – and the top-selling electric car – marking its best finishing position on record.

VFACTS industry sales data published today shows 2927 Tesla Model 3 sedans were reported as sold – referring to deliveries, not orders taken – in January 2023, accounting for two-thirds of all electric vehicles sold last month.

The strong sales result – thanks to the arrival of the largest Tesla vehicle shipment on record in December – is the second-best monthly sales on record for the Tesla Model 3, behind the first month of recorded sales, March 2022, when 3097 deliveries were reported.



However, its third-place finish – behind the Ford Ranger (4749) and Toyota HiLux (4131) utes, and ahead of the Mazda CX-3 (2417) – in the overall new-car sales charts is its best finishing position on record, beating its previous best of fifth last March.

A Tesla vehicle has only finished in the top three once before – the related Tesla Model Y SUV in September 2022, when 4369 deliveries were reported.

As the Model 3 shot up the sales charts, deliveries of the Model Y hit the brakes due to a gap in stock, with 386 sales reported – allowing it to just hold onto its lead in the mid-size SUV above $60,000 class, two cars ahead of the BMW X3 (384).



In total, 4852 electric vehicles were reported as sold in January 2023 – up 682 per cent on January 2022, or up 148 per cent if Tesla is excluded, as the US electric-car specialist did not report its monthly sales this time last year.

Alex Misoyannis

Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020.

Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family.

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