Tesla Inc. is set to make one of the largest deliveries yet of its new Model 3 car to Norway, one of the electric-vehicle producer’s biggest markets, reports Bloomberg.
The Glovis Courage is due at the Port of Oslo on Thursday, loaded with about 1,800 Teslas, according to an email sent by the port to businesses located near the dock.
Type of The Model
It wasn’t clear how many were Model 3s, but that car has largely outpaced the older Model X and S in new registrations in Norway so far this year. If that’s any indication, most of the cars are likely to be Model 3s.
Model 3 Mania
Tesla sales growth skyrocketed in European countries since its introduction.
A spokesman for Tesla in Norway declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Port of Oslo confirmed the ship was due at about 1 p.m. on Thursday with Teslas aboard, but said she couldn’t provide more details.
Regulatory Fallout
The global roll-out of the Model 3, Tesla’s first mass-market vehicle, is a key event for the California-based carmaker, which is struggling to prove it can stay profitable. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk also is at risk of facing more regulatory fallout from his tweets about the company.
Norwegian Operations Monitored
Tesla’s Norwegian operations are closely watched. The Nordic country of little more than 5 million people has the world’s highest number of electric vehicles per capita, thanks to generous incentives. It was Tesla’s fourth-biggest market worldwide in the first nine months of last year, trailing only the U.S., China and the Netherlands.
Musk himself visited Norway last month, holding talks with staff on how to hasten fixes to the company’s service capacity in the country after delays and bottlenecks frustrated
customers last year.
Delivery of the Cars
The 1,800 Teslas arriving in Oslo on Thursday will be offloaded starting early Friday morning, before being transported to the nearby town of Lillestrom. The cars will then be readied for delivery to customers, a process that includes fitting them with winter tires.
Registered Model 3s in Norway
Some 808 Model 3s were registered in Norway in January and February, according to the Norwegian Road Federation, an independent organization that compiles data and lobbies authorities on road policy. That makes it the fifth most-registered car in Norway this year, and compares with 291 Model X SUVs.
Another tally at teslastats.no, an independent website, put the number of registrations of Model 3s in Norway this year at 2,188, including 1,559 so far in March. That’s about four times as many as the two other models combined.
Emission-free vehicles made up more than 40 percent of new car registrations in Norway in February, the road federation said.
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Source: Bloomberg
