Tesla Gets Massive Model 3 Orders As Sales In Western Europe Surge

In a clear sign its ramping-up production of its electric vehicles (EVs), Tesla Inc. has registered 39,680 new Model 3s with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). A significant portion of these cars are destined for Europe, where the Model 3 became the best selling EV in the first quarter.

This huge number is the largest Tesla has registered with the NHTSA since registering a batch of 407,324 EVs. When producing vehicles in the U.S., all automakers have to register the cars’ Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN) with the NHTSA. Analysts use these VIN numbers to calculate key information about the cars being produced.

By registering these 39,680 new Model 3s, Tesla is confirming these vehicles’ production over the next few weeks, said analysts. Some 40 percent of the newly registered Model 3s are equipped with a dual motor powertrain. About 47 percent of the total will be destined for international markets such as Europe and China.

It’s unclear how long Tesla will take to produce those 40,000 Model 3s, however. Carmakers sometimes register VINs months ahead of time.

Analysts say Tesla has stabilized production of the Model 3 at some 5,000 vehicles per week. However, this new VINs show Tesla has reached its desired 50/50 mix of international and domestic orders.

There is the possibility Tesla might tweak this mix to 60/40 (international/domestic) in the near future and 70/30 over the next few years as foreign demand remains far stronger than domestic U.S. demand.

The new VINs also suggest almost half of the buyers still favor the longer range versions of the Model 3 despite those versions being on the market for quite some time, and are thus “old” in a motor vehicle sense. The popularity of the longer range Model 3 also explains its $50,000 average sale price.

Tesla sold 19,482 Model 3s in Europe in the first quarter, according to Matthias Schmidt, a Berlin-based automotive industry analyst. The former top selling EV in Europe, the Renault Zoe, sold 11,049 units over the same period. The Nissan Leaf sold 10,315 in the first quarter.

What’s stunning about the Model 3’s dominance is it only became available in Europe in February.

Schmidt expects the Model 3 to finish the year as the top-selling electric car model in Europe helped along by the fact other manufacturers are coming out with their newer electric models in 2020.

This throttling back in production is being done by European EV makers to lower their fleet average CO2 emissions to achieve the next round of EU targets being introduced in 2020.

“Tesla is the only manufacturer that doesn’t have an issue meeting fleet average CO2 emissions and effectively has an open goal up to the end of this year,” said Schmidt.