Probably best to speak to an expert on this one. The AU government seems to want to make it as difficult as possible to import.
From what I could tell, there’s lots of ‘hidden’ costs to get a car to Australia. Think GST, luxury car tax, getting it steam cleaned, asbestos removed etc.
If you’re stateside, and you can own the car for 12 months, before brining it in, you might be able to go through different channels.
FWIW it costs about $2000 to ship to Brisbane from Melbourne, and currently about $2500 from NZ to AU.
Let us know how you go. So many awesome cars to bring. Low riders, dune buggies, camper vans.
Why would you convert it? It immediately loses its originality. There’s compulsion to do so.
An old boss of mine had an Apollo astronaut (version) ‘69 corvette with a 427 big block and he converted it back to lhd!
Nope, around Town. Did a trip to Nhill this week and I estimate we would get about 500 to 520 with aircon and my erratic over the speed limit driving.
Ironic isn’t it, that with an EV you get best distance for your charge around Town and worst on a long trip at constant speed.
Tesla Superchargers are very good, and you literally watched the battery rampup charge at massive rate. Half a charge of about 300 km in 10 minutes. More and more EV charging places opening up, most are not a rapid as the Tesla superchargers, but still ok.
I estimate my trip of about 650 km return cost about $30 in electricity costs, including Supercharger and my home charging (which is mostly from solar)
That sounds pretty good though ideally I want closer to 800km without stopping but with the technology leaps I think it won’t be long before it’s possible. The Tesla delivery centre in Adelaide is immediately next door to one of our facilities so I’ve popped in a couple of times to check it out and have been offered a couple of test drives but they really aren’t my style so I’ve rejected the offers so far
Do a test drive with an open mind. I guess you like a Tesla or not.
My first drive was after driving a number of other EV models, and the Tesla was just so different, that it grabbed me. When I floored it and it took off like a rocket, I was hooked.
Yes i sort of focus on highway trips as I think theres a whole range it EVs at different price points which do the around town well.(bev/phev and different marques)
This guy gives a pretty honest take on a standard range tesla. ~350km highway driving out of the box i think.
Definetly a car id only consider in long range form if I wanted to use it on weekends away. A car needs to be able to do that I think even if you use it around town most of the time.
To me with Australian distances BEVs in many guises are coming across as very expensive runabouts. With the exception of the long range teslas and maybe the newer kia/hyundais/merc/bmws (the later two very expensive)
That was the thing l most noticed when l got taken for a ride in a Tesla about 8 years ago in Hangzhou. No great sound, no squatting down, the car just picked up speed very quickly without any drama.
Once you join the Tesla cult, you tend to meet many other cultists. All have been completely honest and tell me, the bad and the good in their experience. Many are country travellers, and have adjusted their travels to suit the EV charging needs.
What I do not like is the “auto pilot” stuff, which takes over braking and alarms far too often. If I get close to the side of the road or centre line on freeway, it makes big noise. Though a friend with a Peugot ICE tells me it has the same issues.
You can turn these features off, but you need to do it at the start of every trip, and while the alarm is livable, the braking if there is cyclist up the road or going around a curve with a large truck coming the other way is un-nerving, especially for a passenger like Mrs Fox. I need to post on a Telsa site and see what my fellow cultists think or do.
Yeah I’m not a fan of their look and I’ve sat in a few and find their interior just terrible. I might take BF’s advice and take a test drive in one but I’m keen on the i4 M50 or the AMG EQS53 however I can’t the wife letting me spend $350k plus on a car
Yes, if we are driving over to see my parents I normally leave Adelaide and unless I need a toilet break I drive through to Hay or Narrandera, fill up and then get going again straight away. I love the long drives and when we go North I get up early and do Adelaide to Alice in the day. We tend to fly to most games these days but I regularly used to drive to Melbourne straight through and get there an hour before the game then as soon as the game was over I’d hop in the car and drive straight home
