Nearly three years ago when Bill Chisholm took delivery of his Tesla Model 3 in Canberra, owning one of the latest electric models from the US was almost as rare then as a case of COVID-19.
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But fast forward to last month and 3397 new Teslas hit the road across Australia in the biggest delivery month on record for the brand, with 172 sold in the tiny Canberra market alone.
In August, for the first time the brand was the second biggest seller in the ACT, ahead of big-name nameplates like Mazda and Hyundai, and finishing narrowly behind perennial market leader Toyota.
Latest data released by the motor vehicle industry showed that 4.4 per cent of national sales were new electric vehicles, with 4235 EVs sold in total during August.
Tesla accounted for 80 per cent of the total number of electric vehicles sold across the country in August.
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The ACT remains, per head of population, the biggest EV market in the country and as one of the "early adopters" to the now ubiquitous Tesla brand, Mr Chisholm has experienced both the highs and lows of electric car ownership.
The worst was ending up stuck on the side of road at Moss Vale with a flat tyre and discovering his Tesla had neither a spare, nor a jack, nor an inflation kit, all issues compounded by a totally drained battery pack and his car subsequently needing to be towed away.
And without a single volt left, the car couldn't be put into its "neutral" gear position to be towed. So that added even further complication.
Now with many more battery-powered hours of driving behind him than most ACT owners, Mr Chisholm has found that EV ownership isn't the path to motoring nirvana that so many of the die-hard zero-emission pundits crow about.
"It's one solution, but it's not the solution," he said, admitting that on his next excursion to the NSW Central Highlands he will be packing both a spare tyre, a jack, a 12-volt back-up battery, and the odd little magnetic protective clips that protect the Tesla's underbody battery pack from being damaged when it is raised on the jack.
"That being said, I really enjoy the car and I would definitely buy another one," he added.
"But I would most certainly get one with more driving range and if I was taking a longer trip, other essentials like a spare tyre and back-up 12-volt battery so I don't get caught out again."
Tesla cars are sold online and not through traditional vehicle showrooms, although the brand does have a shopfront in Canberra's city centre and a service operation at Queanbeyan.
A record month was flagged for Tesla by its shipping tracker, VedaPrime, late last month when a seventh shipload for the three-month period arrived from China at the Port Kembla dockyards.
The Chinese car builder had suffered from a huge backlog of orders as a result of the Shanghai dockyards being closed down for several months due to a COVID lockdown at the busiest port in the world.
The ACT recorded the biggest percentage boost in all new vehicle sales across the nation last month, up by 49.8 per cent on the same month last year as the national car industry slowly began to stagger back from a long period of COVID factory shutdowns, semi-conductor shortages and transport-related issues.
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