TESLA

Model Y: the best-selling car in Europe in the first quarter

The Tesla Model Y is officially the best-selling car in Europe for the first quarter of 2023, showing an impressive sales growth of 179% compared to the same period last year.

The electric SUV surpassed Dacia Spring and Peugeot e208, which are in the first three places in 27 European markets. Volkswagen was the best-selling brand overall, finishing ahead of Toyota and Peugeot.

According to JATO, the Tesla Model Y topped the chart in March 2023. However, this is the first time it has won the top spot on a quarterly basis. An indicator of growth in Model Y registrations in Europe, the EV ranked 31st in the first quarter of 2022, jumping a whopping 30 places in one year.

Felipe Munoz, global analyst at JATO Dynamics, attributes the sales success to “increased production with fewer supply chain issues,” suggesting the Model Y is likely to be among the top 5 best-selling vehicles in Europe overall in 2023.

On the other hand, sales of the closely related Tesla Model 3 fell 40% in the first quarter of 2023, proving once again that buyers prefer SUVs. Tesla is working on a redesign of the Model 3, and there are rumors that next year’s Model Y will get the same treatment.

New car registrations in Europe showed growth of 17% in the first quarter of 2023, totaling 3,220,806 units, the highest number since 2019. According to Munoz, the increase is “explained by the backlog of orders from previous months that could not be delivered due to shortages components at that time”.

Fully electric cars accounted for 13.4% of total new car registrations in Europe in the first quarter of 2023, with 430,700 units. This is the best result for EVs ever, which is attributed to more options, more affordable prices and attractive incentives.

Other EV manufacturers with good results in this period were Geely and SAIC (MG), which shows that this is only the beginning of the Chinese car manufacturers’ offensive on Europe.

Another interesting fact is that the Toyota bZ4X, which is currently the only all-electric offering in the Japanese brand’s European range, showed a huge sales growth of 437% in the first quarter, but failed to enter the top 10 with only 3,700 registrations.

by: Mundoquatrorodas