TURIN – With more than 40,000 units sold in March, the Tesla Model Y is posied to become Europe’s best-seller in the first quarter. It would be the first time a Tesla model achieved that milestone.
After being Europe’s top-seller in February, beating the Dacia Sandero 18,153 to 18,074 sales, the Model Y led its next closest rival, the Opel/Vauxhall Corsa small hatchback by nearly 20,000 sales in March, according to preliminary figures form market researchers Dataforce.
That left the Model Y with 66,623 first-quarter sales compared with the second-place Dacia Sandero's 56,030 sales, based on data representing 92 percent of sales in the European Union plus ETFA countries and the U.K.
Previously Tesla's figure was at 65,051 with 88 percent of the markets reporting.
Price reductions that began in Europe in January gave Model Y sales a big boost. Tesla more than doubled sales of the SUV between January and February and did that again between February and March.
Tesla increased its overall sales by 43 percent in March to 60,866 units, leaving it just 700 units behind Ford for the month, and Tesla's volume grew by 58 percent to 93,714 units in the first quarter, according to figures from industry association ACEA.
Tesla primarily builds the Model Ys it sells in Europe at its plant near Berlin, which has reportedly reached a weekly output of 5,000 units and is shooting to boost production to 10,000 a week – or about 40,000 a month – suppliers told Automotive News Europe.
Tesla imports the Model 3 midsize sedan for Europe from its plant in Shanghai, while a small number of the Model S large sedans and X large SUVs come from its U.S. plant in Fremont, California.
Despite growing competition from other brands, the Model Y's performance in March boosted Tesla's EV market share to 21.7 percent in the first quarter, up from 18.4 percent during the same period last year. In March alone, Tesla nearly sold as many vehicles as it did in the entire first quarter of last year.
Looking at the rest of the top 50 sellers in Europe, the Corsa was in a tight race with the Peugeot 208, Toyota Yaris Cross, Nissan Qashqai and Volkswagen T-Roc.
All five cars had volumes of about 23,200 to 20,300, based on preliminary figures.
That means there could be some movement up or down for places two through six in the ranking once all markets have reported their figures.
Every model in the top 10 increase sales compared with the same month last year, led by the Model Y's 136 percent gain and the Yaris Cross' 97 percent increase.
Some other cars that will finished the poised to finish the month on a higher were the Skoda Octavia (+228 percent) and the VW ID3 (+131 percent).
