Tesla Opens New Store In Iceland, Elon Musk Confirms Sept. 9 Opening

Iceland is going big on Tesla Inc.

Iceland is the only country in Europe that derives all its energy from renewable sources, so convincing Icelanders to go Tesla won’t be that much of a problem. The fact that 130,000 people out of Iceland’s entire population of 360,000 persons live in only one place -- the capital Reykjavik -- isn’t lost on Tesla’s sales team.

That’s why Iceland is atop Tesla’s to do list when it comes to sales. Only problem is, Iceland still doesn’t have a single Tesla showroom.

The clamor for Tesla to open in Iceland has been non-stop among Icelanders. On May 5, one of them with the Twitter handle, @ATeslaInICEland, tweeted to Musk:

“Iceland, a nation of 350k people had more EV sales than Denmark and Finland last year. @Tesla is in both those countries but not in Iceland. @elonmusk, what would it take to get a service centre?”

To which Musk replied on the same day, “Thanks for letting me know. Will expedite. Sorry for the delay.”

That’s where things stood and from the time of this tweet in May to August. No word of a Tesla branch in Iceland.

On Aug. 7, an Icelander and apparent Tesla fan named Hjortur Brynjars, tweeted Musk to ask: “what´s the deal with the Tesla store in Iceland? Nothing has happened for months, it seems frozen in time. Meanwhile, bunch of Icelanders ponder ordering other EV's as they grow tired of waiting.”

And, on Aug. 31, Musk finally replied: “Opening on 9/9.” No details followed.

Tesla’s first overseas branch in Iceland will open Sept. 9 in Reykjavik. This will also mean Tesla will have to talk a lot about it in the next week.

It’s about time. Electric vehicles (EVs) currently comprise 15 percent of Iceland’s total population of motor vehicles, indicating a large pent-up demand for Tesla EVs. Analysts noted this percentage is already higher than in most other markets around the world.

Sources noted Tesla might open a store and service center in Reykjavík along with a few Supercharger stations that will enable Tesla owners to travel around their small island.