The chances of Tesla's flagship sedan and SUV returning to Australia look slim, as the company provides its best indication of why the latest versions were pulled from sale before deliveries commenced.
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Tesla has shed light for the first time on why plans to sell the latest Model S and Model X electric cars in Australia were suddenly pulled two years ago.
And the news is not good for potential customers hoping for the flagship Tesla electric cars to return to local showrooms in their current generations.
Order books for the facelifted Model S and Model X were opened in early 2021, buyers allowed to pay a reservation fee to mark their spot in the queue ahead of a promised start to deliveries in late 2022.
By the end of 2021, prices and delivery times had been pulled from the Tesla website, but buyers could continue to place a pre-order.
No details or explanation for the change were given, other than a statement in a message to customers that "due to recent changes to the vehicle program ... [they] will not be available in right-hand drive."
The current boss of Tesla Australia, Thom Drew, told Drive "engineering difficulties" prevented the cars from being sold here, and left little hope for that to change.
"I don't know the intimate details. We were taking reservations for that vehicle because we intended to deliver it.
"It was obviously a change by the product planning team quite late in the development where, unfortunately, we missed out on that in right-hand drive.
"From what I understand, there are some engineering difficulties in the vehicle that make it not possible to build it in right-hand drive, due to some decisions that were made.
"So it doesn't appear to be something that's going to be made in right-hand drive anytime soon."
It is unclear what "engineering difficulties" have made right-hand drive infeasible, given the Model S and Model X were sold locally prior to the 2021 facelift.
One option is Tesla has changed the sheet metal ahead of the passenger cabin – where the steering rack fits – and has not accommodated a version suitable for right-hand-drive markets.
Such an issue may not stand in the way of the Cybertruck pick-up – a left-hand-drive Tesla that is currently being considered for a right-hand-drive version – as it uses steer-by-wire technology, so there is no mechanical connection between the steering wheel and front tyres.
After the 2021 facelift, Tesla continued to sell the Model S and Model X in the right-hand-drive UK and Japanese markets, but as left-hand-drive vehicles.
It has since dropped them from sale.
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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
