Plenty of existing Model 3 and Model Y owners trade in their vehicles for new Teslas, but more customers are coming into the US car giant's cars from this popular Japanese brand than any other.
Electric Cars
More new Tesla customers in Australia trade in a Mazda than any other brand of car, the local boss of the US car giant revealed.
Tesla Australia country director Thom Drew told Drive there is a "healthy mix of both" existing customers and new-to-Tesla buyers purchasing the brand's vehicles, but it's the latter leading the charge.
"We obviously want our older owners to trade up and get the latest technology. But we want to get ICE [internal combustion-engined] cars off the road, that's our absolute priority here," he said.
"Interestingly enough, we do look at very closely at our trade-in data, and Mazda tends to be the number one brand that we're seeing.
"A lot of CX-range vehicles, like-for-like in shape and size, making that transition over."
Mazda has sold nearly 120,000 CX-5 mid-size SUVs – the size equivalent to a Tesla Model Y – over the past five full calendar years, creating a broad base of owners to trade in their vehicles.
The Japanese car maker was Australia's third-most popular new-car brand last year, after holding onto second place for much of the last decade.
Interestingly, the nation's top-selling brand – Toyota – is not number-one for trade-ins on new Teslas.
A top-of-the-range Mazda CX-5 turbo-petrol is priced from $55,150 plus on-road costs – or about $60,000 drive-away – not much less than a Tesla Model Y RWD, at $58,900 plus on-roads.
But in larger sectors, Mazda has rolled out more expensive vehicles over the past two years that cost considerably more than their predecessors.
Among them, the cheapest CX-60 – a five-seater slightly larger than the CX-5 – until recently started about $5000 higher than the flagship CX-5, and topped out at more than $90,000 drive-away.
Equivalent data for what Tesla customers in other markets are trading in is not available, but there is the other way around – the cars for which existing Tesla customers are trading their vehicles in.
In the US, mid-2024 data from Edmunds listed the Ford F-150 Lightning, Cadillac Lyriq and Kia EV9 as the top models purchased where a Tesla was included as a trade-in, though it does not include Rivians, Polestars, or other vehicles not sold through traditional dealers.
It is up from 0.4 per cent a year prior, and grew to 1.4 per cent in March 2025.
Electric Cars Guide
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. Highly Commended - Young Writer of the Year 2024 (Under 30) Rising Star Journalist, 2024 Winner Scoop of The Year - 2024 Winner
