Germany's Love For Tesla Soars As April Vehicle Registrations More Than Triple

EV giant Tesla Inc‘s TSLA new vehicle registrations in Germany jumped 272.3% year-over-year in the month of April.

What Happened: As per data released by Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority, Tesla had the most percentage jump in new vehicle registrations among imported brands in April. Tesla’s registrations rose to 2,420 units and accounted for 1.2% of total registrations.

A total of 202,947 new passenger cars were registered in Germany in April, up 12.6% year-over-year. Of these, electric battery-powered cars accounted for 14.7% or 29,740 cars and hybrid passenger cars for 29.3% or 59,468 cars. Petrol, however, continued to be the most popular fuel choice with 76,519 petrol-engine cars registered last month.

Almost all German brands showed positive growth. German automaker Volkswagen AG VWAGY accounted for 18.2% of registrations with 36,940 new cars registered in April.

Ford Motor Co F, however, witnessed an 18.6% slump in new registrations to 8,159 vehicles.

Why It Matters: Tesla is also seeking to ramp up production in Germany. The company’s Berlin Gigafactory achieved a weekly production capacity of 5,000 vehicles in late March, drawing praise from CEO Elon Musk.

In the same month, it was reported that Tesla submitted applications to the country’s environmental agency to expand production at Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg to one million vehicles per year. The current capacity of the Gigafactory is 500,000 vehicles per year.

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