► Tesla has passed a new sales milestone
► And it did so with a range of just four cars
► Plus, the company has plans for expansion
British buyers can’t seem to get enough of Tesla. At the end of March 2024, the brand announced it had sold its 200,000th electric car in the UK. To put that figure into context, the UK only saw its one millionth electric vehicle in February 2024. That means, currently, one fifth of all EVs on our roads are Teslas.
Tesla reckons its success can be partially attributed to its rather unconventional sales strategy. The company operates a direct-to-consumer model, which means buyers don’t need to visit a dealership to purchase their electric cars. They can just thumb around on the brand’s website and have the car delivered directly to their home.
You can get one quite quickly, too. Over the past year, Tesla has streamlined its production and logistics operations to slash delivery times down to just 30 days. The firm used to deliver its cars in quarterly chunks, which meant buyers could sometimes wait as long as three months to receive their car, so this is a massive improvement.
Tesla’s UK sales and delivery manager, Michael Oates, said: ‘Reaching this milestone of 200,000 deliveries shows how far Tesla has contributed to the UK’s transition to sustainable energy. More and more customers are not just looking towards Tesla as an option for sustainability, but also for safety and affordability.’
What else is Tesla doing?
Well, Tesla is still quite keen to make its cars more accessible. In the past, the company did this with a notoriously volatile pricing strategy. For example, the Model 3 and Model Y received a spate of discounts throughout 2023, as the brand fought to keep itself at the top of the EV sales charts in the face of its newer competitors.
But Tesla tells us it has now stabilised its new car prices. Instead, it’ll seek to make its cars more attainable to those on tighter budgets with its expanded approved used programme. In a nutshell, Tesla plans to build up a stock of well-maintained cars and sell them back to public through a series of certified used car hubs.
What about the ownership experience?
Tesla’s making strides in that area, too. Its goal is to make owning a Tesla as stress-free as possible – and its Supercharger network plays a big role in that experience. The firm has installed 1,400 Superchargers at 140 locations up and down the UK. It also has plans to further expand its network over the coming year with the roll out of its new, faster V4 Superchargers.
Tesla’s V4 Superchargers can deliver up to 250kW of DC power, which is enough to blast the Model Y’s battery from zero to 80 percent charge in just half an hour. That’s just enough time for a comfort break, which means it’s relatively easy to cover long distances in the company’s EVs.
Plus, all the latest Superchargers support the Plug and Charge protocol, which means you don’t need to faff about with payment cards or apps to use them. You simply link your car to your bank, plug into the charger and the payment is automatically taken from at the end of the charging session.
The Supercharger network is staggeringly reliable, too. We think it’s the best EV charging network on the market – and Tesla’s stats back up our experience because, during 2023, the company claims it managed to retain 99% network reliability. Currently, the only way you can access the network is by owning a Tesla. So, if you want an easy EV experience, that’s reason enough to opt for one of the company’s cars.
Tesla is also improving its maintenance practices. Like its sales and delivery programme, the company has a direct-to-consumer strategy – and it claims that it can fix 50 percent of its cars using mobile servicing. That means buyers can organise maintenance from the comfort of their own homes.