Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past several weeks, you would have known the mixed opinions on the Cybertruck when it was unveiled by Elon Musk himself and the “Tesla Armor Glass” mishap on stage when lead designer Franz von Holzhausen threw a steel ball at the vehicle and both times, the window shattered.

So, I live in Melbourne, Australia and have put down the fully refundable AU$150 deposit for the Cybertruck in hopes that it will be released around about when I need an actual vehicle to get around. As of writing this on 31st December 2019 (happy new year by the way), the pricing on the Australian website has not been released yet, and likely won’t be until it nears the estimated production time in late 2021. Now, I could just wait, or make an approximate guess on how much it would cost, but would I really be writing this if I was going to do that. Well I thought so!

For the calculations, we’ll be doing it for the Tri-Motor variant and will include a table with approximate pricing following the formula we make in a table somewhere towards the end of this article. To begin, lets find out how the cost of another Tesla vehicle that is currently on sale in both countries and go from there.

Lets take the price of the Tesla Model X – Performance variant, US$104,990 with the standard Pearl White Multi-Coat color and 20″ Silver Wheels. Now select the Black and White Premium Interior with Carbon Fiber Décor, US$2,000 and another US$6,500 for the Six Seat Interior, and lastly, US$7,000 for the Full Self-Driving Capability of course. This brings out total to US$120,490. Now, let’s head over to the Australian site and do the same and compare the two.

United StatesAustralia
Model X PerformanceUS$104,990AU$151,900
Black and White Premium Interior with Carbon Fiber Décor US$2,000AU$2,950
Six Seat InteriorUS$6,500AU$9,400
Full Self-Driving CapabilityUS$7,000AU$8,500
TOTALUS$102,490AU$172,750

Here if we take the two values and divide the Australian price against the American price, we can get a conversion rate. In this case 172,750 / 102,490 gives us 1.68553029564. With this conversion rate, it’s simple math to convert the US$69,900 Tri-Motor AWD variant to it’s AUD equivalent.

69,900 * 1.6855302956385987 = 117818.567665

This gives us a base cost of AU$117,818.57 which after adding the AU$8,500 FSD, we will get AU$126,318.57. Now the fun part begins… Calculating the local charges, for which I will base it on Victorian costs and will update this post at a later date to include other states and Cybertruck models.

ItemFormulaCost
Luxury Car Tax( V – $75,726 ) * 33%AU$16,695.55
VIC Stamp DutyAU$8,560AU$8,560
VIC Registration CostsAU$238AU$238
VIC CTPAU$532AU$532
VIC Plate FeeAU$175AU$175
TOTALAU$26,200.55
V = Vehicle Cost incl. FSD Cost ($126,318.57)
Image: Tesla, Inc.

Lastly, lets grab the same delivery fee as the Model X Performance in Victoria: AU$1,375 and add it all up. Vehicle and FSD cost of AU$126,318.57 plus Victorian on-road fees of AU$26,200.55 and delivery fee of AU$1,375 to bring the final cost to a whopping AU$153,894.12 !!

Well… Let’s just agree that I probably won’t be able to afford it anytime soon. Though I hope the cost of bringing it into Australia will be lower and just maybe, Australia will be a tad bit nicer to people with EVs and give them a higher luxury car tax threshold. Ending on a positive note, the cost includes the Goods and Services Tax (GST). 😜

EDIT: Lets fix the stupid calculations made by doing a straight USD to AUD conversion with say an additional $5,000 in transportation and import costs into Australia plus the local Victorian costs. This would be as follows:

Vehicle Cost of US$69,900 * 1.44 = AU$100,656
Transportation and Import Cost of US$5,000 * 1.44 = AU$7,200
Sum of Above Costs is AU$100,656 + AU$7,200 = AU$107,856
Include Cost of Full Self Driving (FSD) of AU$8,500 + AU$107,856 = AU$116,356
Luxury Car Tax (LCT) of (AU$116,356 – AU$75,726) * 33% = AU$13,408
Sum of Victorian Costs is AU$8,560 + AU$238 + AU$532 + AU$175 = AU$9505
Sum of Local Costs Plus Vehicle is AU$116,356 + AU$13,408 + AU$9,505 = AU$139,269

Although the calculation was completely wrong, it is not too far off of the conservative estimation based on current USD to AUD conversion rate of 1.44. The actual total of the Tri-Motor AWD variant is AU$139,269. Just a more polished pill to swallow compared to the previous estimate of AU$14,625 more than this.

Lets just hope we get a good conversion rate come the time of pricing release in Australia.