Tesla tells the world South Australia is “the future”

A senior Tesla executive has singled out South Australia during its Investor Day presentation.

While showing claimed cost benefits of using home solar instead of relying on the grid, Andrew Baglino, Senior Vice President of Powertrain and Energy Engineering at Tesla, referred to the Australian state as a benchmark for the world.

"Australia is a little bit of a special case, they represent the future – South Australia in particular – solar and wind supplied 70 per cent of South Australia's energy in 2022," he said during the four-hour event, which has been seen by almost 900,000 people globally.

While 70 per cent of the grid's energy was supplied from renewable sources – helped by a large battery reserve from Tesla – Mr Baglino said there were cost benefits for owners to supply solar electricity to the grid.

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Mr Baglino used data gathered from 5000 customers in South Australia to spruik the financial benefits of the company's Tesla Electric products – which includes solar arrays and its 'Powerwall' home battery.

The comments come on the same day South Australia opened the first 12 of its 140 proposed sites as part of a border-to-border electric car charging network – an initiative of the State Government, in partnership with Jet Charge, Chargefox, and RAA Charge.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas attended a ceremony, which marked the opening of 59 electric-car charging stations across the 12 sites.