‘Huge backlog’: Tesla ‘graveyard’ as unsold cars pile up

A Tesla ‘graveyard’ has emerged in Melbourne amid the company’s plummeting car sales.

A viral picture has shone a light on plummeting Tesla sales, as rows of unsold cars have been left to pile up in an electric vehicle ‘graveyard’ in Melbourne.

Around 2000 Teslas arrive at Port Melbourne every month but with sales falling, many have been left to sit and ‘wait for buyers’, according to Peter Anderson, of the Victorian Transport Association.

“All of a sudden we’ve got a huge backlog of Teslas that aren’t moving,” Mr Anderson told 7News.

“Teslas usually come into this country pre-sold. These ones aren’t, they’re sitting here.”

A Tesla ‘graveyard’ has emerged in Melbourne as countless unsold cars pile up. Picture: 7News

It comes as Tesla sales dropped a further 20 per cent in May after a 44 per cent drop in April, despite recent price cuts in a bid to compete with a growing Chinese EV market.

A brand new Tesla Model Y is now $11,400 cheaper and Elon Musk’s company is not the only automaker cutting prices.

The Peugeot e2008 has been given a massive cut from $63,000 to $39,990. On the lower end of the market, a GWM Ora is down 20 per cent to $35,990.

Around 2,000 Teslas arrive at Port Melbourne every month. Picture: 7News

Competitors thriving

The drop in Tesla sales is in direct contrast to Chinese rival BYD, which has just posted a record sales month.

BYD sold more than 1900 electric cars in May, well up on its previous record of 1622 vehicles.

Overall, EV car sales grew by more than 10 per cent in May, after a 5 per cent dip in April. So far this year, EV sales are up almost 27 per cent, but sales of hybrids have doubled in the same period.

Car experts say EV sales growth has slowed as the industry moves past the early adopter phase, Mainstream buyers are yet to be convinced to take the leap, amid concerns about limited charging infrastructure and poor resale figures.

Last year, the federal government slashed its forecast for the take-up of EVs, after Labor predicted EVs would make up 89 per cent of new car sales by 2030 prior to the election.

Now the federal transport department believes they’ll only make up 27 per cent.

Speaking on Sky News Caleb Bond said the market “has really softened” for electric vehicles.

“People are not buying them in the same numbers they were because they’ve worked out it’s all a bit of a sham.

“And one of the great shams is that there is no resale value in these things.”

Bond added old electric cars were also depreciating quickly because technology has improved every year.

“It’s no surprise people aren’t buying them.”

Hyundai chief operating officer John Kett said earlier this week that the industry needed to improve consumer confidence around resale values and battery longevity. 

Tesla sales dropped 44 per cent in April. Picture: Justin Sullivan/ Getty/AFP

Project panel clashes over EVs

The fall in EV sales was discussed on Network Ten’s The Project on Tuesday night, where

star Kate Langbroek wasn’t shy about sharing her theory behind the decline.

“Isn’t it funny that when we don’t want something that we’re supposed to want it’s called misinformation?” Langbroek said.

“The reason I don’t have one is because of information. I don’t want to have to wait four hours to charge my car. I don’t have a garage. I don’t have off-street parking. How am I going to charge my car?”

Her remarks didn’t seem to sit well with co-host Waleed Aly, who was quick to suggest the claim EVs are falling out of favour with the public was in itself just a form of misinformation.

Kate Langbroek made some wild remarks about EVs on The Project. Picture: 10.

He suggested the dip in sales was likely down to the cost of living crisis.

“This is a beat up isn’t it?” he hit back. “All you’re doing is comparing last year to this year and then saying they’re down five per cent … at a time of a cost of living crisis.”

“Well why did we run the story then?” laughed Langbroek.

“Well. I don’t know,” spluttered Aly, before pulling a confused expression and glancing back at his co-star.

Sarah Harris then chimed in, pointing out new technologies are always most popular when they first emerge onto the market, which sparked Langbroek to make a comparison that seemed to leave the panel speechless.

“It’s like how my dad was with a CD player,” she remarked. “And you know what, it turned out he was right! Who’s got a CD player now?”

Former Top Gear host calls on UK government

In the UK, former Top Gear host Quentin Willson, has called on the UK government to “manage consumer sentiment” as it seeks to abolish traditional petrol and diesel cars over the next 10 years.

Speaking before a session of the UK parliament’s Transport Committee last month, the former car dealer and journalist turned lobbyist blasted the “torrent of stuff from right-wing and vested interests” for putting the brakes on consumer appetite for EVs.

The panel heard evidence from several experts about whether the UK’s goal of banning internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles by 2035 — originally slated for 2030 — was “realistic and achievable”.

“It is achievable but it is being held back by myths, misinformation and disinformation,” Willson said.

Former Top Gear host turned EV lobbyist Quentin Willson. Picture: X

“Consumers need to have confidence in electric cars, they need to want to buy them, because if they don’t, manufacturers won’t sell them and there is this self-destructive fulfilling circle where we don’t get consumer interest to drive the market forward. As a campaign group we counted one tabloid newspaper that had 160 continuous anti-EV stories without a break, and we see this also in the broadsheets.”

Willson insisted that “in terms of the technology, the cars work”.

“We have over a million electric battery only and plug-in cars on our roads, and people have happily folded them into their lives and you see them strobing up and down the motorways, London is now full of them,” he said.

2024 Tesla Model 3 Performance. Picture: Thomas Wielecki

In the UK, which now leads Europe in EV sales, headline figures showed surging demand for EVs to reach 16.9 per cent market share in April, but this was “sustained entirely by business buyers, as private retail demand continues to drop”, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

Sales are currently being propped up by “fleet” purchases courtesy of massive government subsidies that allow employees to write off the cost of leasing against income tax.

The UK’s Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate requires 52 per cent of new cars to be EVs by 2028, rising to 80 per cent by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2035.