Tesla has broken the Iceland annual sales record for a single car model with the Model Y, and it has done it in half a year.
Iceland is perfect for the massive adoption of electric vehicles. The island’s electricity generation is already almost 100% renewable, which makes EVs super clean, and being a remote island, petrol is expensive.
Albeit being sparsely populated with only ~350,000 people, there’s a significant concentration of population around Reykjavík, and people have relatively short commutes that can be covered with most electric vehicles.
Tesla has made an investment in the country by building a Supercharger network on the whole island, which it opened to all electric vehicles last year.
The automaker’s investment in the country is now starting to pay off, with the Model Y becoming the most popular vehicle in Iceland. The Iceland Monitor reports that Tesla has so far delivered 1,316 Model Y vehicles in Iceland in 2023.
In just six months, Model Y has beaten the record for most sales in a year for a single car model. It was set by the Toyota Corolla with just over 1,200 deliveries back in 1988.
It was held for 35 years. The Toyota Yaris almost beat it in 2006, but it took an electric SUV to beat it in just six months.
Iceland has put in place incentives for car rental companies to update their fleet with electric vehicles – making it easier to drive electric for people visiting.