Tesla, Polestar withdraw from industry sales reporting

Two of Australia’s biggest electric car brands – market leader Tesla and fast-expanding Polestar – will cease supplying new-vehicle sales figures to the industry’s VFACTS reporting service as momentum gathers for an independent government body to take over the role.

Their departure from the nation’s traditional new-vehicle sales statistics will make it more difficult for consumers and media outlets like carsales to identify automotive sales trends including each brand’s overall market share, the market share of models in segments where Tesla and Polestar are represented and other industry data such as monthly and yearly sales records.

Last month, Tesla and Polestar separately announced they would withdraw their respective memberships of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) amid claims the peak industry body lacked transparency and accuracy in its representations to the public.

That was in response to the federal government’s proposed New Vehicle Emissions Standard (NVES), which has been subsequently watered down after an acrimonious campaign fought during the consultation phase.

This week, Tesla and Polestar have both confirmed with carsales that their FCAI boycott would extend to VFACTS reporting, with both now opting to release their sales numbers through the Electric Vehicle Council (EVC).

The current VFACTS entity responsible for reporting new-car sales data in Australia is a commercial service run by the FCAI.

“At the moment we’re committed to working with the Electric Vehicle Council, we’ll be reporting our figures through the EVC [instead of VFACTS],” said Polestar Australia head of communication Laurissa Mirabelli.

“For the time being that’s the path forward for Polestar.”

Separately, carsales has learned Tesla will continue with plans to exit the FCAI at the end of the 2023-2024 financial year and merge its sales reporting to the EVC thereafter.

Tesla declined to publicly comment on the matter.

Both car-makers are spearheading calls for the federal government to take control of Australia’s new-vehicle sales reporting, with speculation that an independent body could usurp the long-running FCAI service as early as 2025.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one industry insider said the campaign was gathering momentum.

“Many in the industry are calling on the federal government to publish a transparent, free, public record of new-vehicle sales when NVES begins next year to ensure the integrity of the standard,” the insider said.

The issue came to a head when the FCAI claimed the government’s preferred strategy under the proposed NVES – as it stood before being amended – would cause the price of Australia’s most popular internal combustion vehicles to increase by thousands of dollars.

Estimates released by the FCAI last month predicted that without concessions, some of Australia’s best-selling models would be slapped with thousands of dollars of penalties, amounting to more than $13,000 in the case of the Toyota LandCruiser and upwards of $6000 for the Ford Ranger – all of which would supposedly be passed on to consumers.

In its NVES submission, Tesla said the FCAI lacked transparency.

“Government action is critical because there is currently no public and reliable source of data on Australian vehicle emissions,” the submission read.

“As a commercial data source, VFACTS is not obliged to provide the public with complete information on vehicle emissions. FCAI CO2 reporting bakes in the use of bonus credits, and releases CO2 data by segments (MA; MC & NA) without revealing the size of those segments, so the public cannot know the total average emissions of vehicles, nor compare emissions from 2020 onwards to previous years.

“This underscores the importance of government obtaining and publishing its own reliable source of public data.”

Mirabelli said Polestar was watching the FCAI’s actions closely.

“I think the FCAI has been quite cautious in its statement since those recent NVES revisions were announced, so we’ll see what the final verdict is from the industry,” Mirabelli said.

“Polestar’s preferred outcome would have been less concessions for light commercial vehicles and large SUVs, considering efficiency standards have been commonplace for decades. There has been plenty of time to introduce new technologies in those models, which would have helped the segment meet targets.

“In some ways it’s disappointing but it was always going to be a compromise. The standard was never going to be what we were after or what the car industry was after.

“The fact the government has managed to devise an agreed model is a huge step forward. We’ll take the compromise if it means Australia ends up with an efficiency standard.”

As part of their FCAI membership, car-makers supply detailed monthly sales figures and effectively pay the industry body based on their sales volumes.

Polestar sold 2463 cars in Australia in 2023, compared to EV leader Tesla’s 46,116 and market-leader Toyota’s 215,240.

In a statement last month, the FCAI defended its messaging around NVES and vowed to continue championing change.

“FCAI cannot support a standard that in the short-term might meet the needs and pockets of those at the premium end of the market while potentially hurting businesses and families who may be forced to deal with less choice and higher prices next time they buy a new car,” the statement read.

Despite the concessions, the government claims the NVES “will reduce emissions from new passenger vehicles by more than 60 per cent by 2030, and roughly halve the emissions of new light commercial vehicles over the same period”.

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