New car, active hiring suggest Tesla Singapore supply woes are over

ELECTRIC car company Tesla launched the Model Y at a pop-up store in Ion Orchard on Tuesday (Jul 12), with this midsize Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) – the second model in its local lineup – possibly ending a dry spell for the brand here.

The Model Y has been available to order on the American brand’s website for a month, but its appearance at Ion marked an official debut for the car in Singapore, with deliveries set to commence in August.

Prices start at S$142,471 without Certificate Of Entitlement (COE) for a basic version with a single motor. A more powerful version with two motors, the Model Y Performance, lists for S$190,195 without COE. It can cover up to 514 km on a single charge and accelerates like a Ferrari, sprinting to 100 km/h in only 3.7 seconds, compared to 455 km and 6.9 seconds respectively for the cheaper variant.

The new SUV arrives on the back of a two-month drought for Tesla here. Land Transport Authority figures show that the electric-only carmaker registered 180 cars in the first 3 months of the year, but only 10 in April and May.

The lull allowed China’s BYD to take the electric vehicle (EV) crown here, with 246 registrations.

Tesla’s worldwide sales are still growing rapidly, but lockdowns in the April-to-June quarter meant it had to shut down its assembly plant in Shanghai. Supply chain problems brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine also affected Tesla, along with most of the car industry.

At the Model Y launch, a Tesla Singapore spokesperson said the brand’s supply problems were now behind it. The company, which conducts its own retail operations, is now in expansion mode and is actively recruiting to fill positions for sales, new car delivery and marketing – though a spokesperson declined to reveal exact figures.

The hiring spree comes a month after the sacking of Singapore company manager Christopher Bousigues, who wrote on LinkedIn that his role had been “eliminated” as part of a worldwide 10 per cent workforce reduction.

Isabel Fan, the regional manager for the brand, said at the Model Y launch that Tesla intends to keep investing in Singapore and will continue to add headcount. “In Singapore we are about a year old, still a baby,” the Hong Kong-based executive said.

Over the past year, Tesla has set up 2 retail locations and a service centre. It owns and operates 8 Supercharger stations with 24 high-speed charging points that can add 120 km of range to a Model Y in as little as 5 minutes.

“I think Singapore has the potential in every way to become a beacon market for EVs in the region, or in the world,” Fan said.

But the brand has some catching up to do if it is to meet its own targets. In a shareholder presentation, the company earlier said it intends to grow its sales 50 per cent per year on average for the next few years. After putting more than 900 cars on the road here in 2021, Tesla would have to sell and register around 200 cars a month for the remainder of the year in order to come close.