Tesla has announced it delivered its 300,000th vehicle in the UK last month, coinciding with a significant surge in electric car sales.
The US manufacturer confirmed this milestone was reached with a Model 3 delivered in Manchester on 30 May, a decade after its first UK delivery in 2014.
Company figures indicate 2,897 UK deliveries in May, a 44 per cent rise from the 2,016 recorded in the same month last year.
Tesla’s Model Y and Model 3 secured the top two spots for new electric vehicle registrations across the UK last year. This broader increase in EV demand has been observed since the Iran oil crisis began pushing up petrol and diesel prices.
Upcoming figures for May are expected to show a large increase in overall EV registrations.
Ginny Buckley, chief executive of electric car buying advice website Electrifying.com, said: “Tesla deserves enormous credit for proving that electric cars could be desirable, practical and mainstream.
“The company was the disruptor that forced the entire automotive industry to take EVs seriously.”
Ms Buckley said Tesla now faces “fierce competition”, particularly from Chinese brands and “increasingly capable rivals from Europe and Korea”.
She added: “Reaching 300,000 UK deliveries is a remarkable achievement, but the next 300,000 are likely to be much harder won.”
Tanya Sinclair, chief executive of lobby group Electric Vehicles UK, said Tesla’s sales performance shows the question of “whether people want electric cars” has been replaced by “how fast supply can keep up”.
She went on: “Tesla optimises supply: no annual service bill, low running costs and a faultless charging network.
“Now it’s over to the rest of the market to provide cars that are cheaper to run and simpler to own, and fully reliable charging.”
The Model 3 Standard replaces the existing Model 3 Rear-Wheel Drive in the company’s British lineup, with the two cut-price Standard models aiming to boost Tesla sales after a near 10 per cent drop in the UK last year.
The new Model 3 Standard is priced from £37,990 making it the cheapest new Tesla available in the UK. However, like the Model Y Standard, the Model 3 Standard is much cheaper in Europe. In Germany a Model 3 Standard retails for €37,970 (around £33,000).
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