Tesla becomes Iceland’s most popular car brand with its first batch of deliveries

In just one month of official deliveries, Tesla has become not just the best-selling EV, but the best-selling vehicle brand in Iceland this year.

Even though Tesla only officially entered Iceland last September, it has proven so popular that it delivered 415 vehicles in the first quarter of the year, Electrek reports.

[Read: Want to take your partner on a romantic EV road trip? Head to Norway]

More established automakers, Toyota and Volkswagen, were the second and third most popular brands delivering 286 and 257 vehicles, respectively.

More generally, EVs in the country are closing the gap on diesel and gasoline vehicles. According to the figures cited by Electrek, of the vehicles sold in Q1 in Iceland 994 were diesel-powered, 871 were electric, and 797 were fueled by gasoline.

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Tesla first started taking orders for its Model 3, S, and X in September 2019, so these March deliveries actually represent around six months worth of sales.

According to Electrek, another huge shipment of Teslas is on its way to the island nation. Tesla might hold on to the crown of most popular brand for a while yet.

At the time of writing, Tesla has just one service center in Iceland, however, it is planning to build a further four Supercharging locations. They look to be enough to enable Tesla owners to circumnavigate the country, if they really wanted to.

Electric vehicles make a lot of sense in countries like Iceland, thanks to its abundance of green energy. Teslas have also proved very popular in other Nordic and Scandinavian countries.

According to BI Norwegian Business School’s annual Customer Barometer survey, Tesla ranked 12th in ratings based on satisfaction among car makers in Norway in 2019. However, Tesla still commanded one of the highest loyalty ratings of any car brand in the country.

It’s too early to say if Tesla will maintain its popularity in Iceland, but if it manages to woo locals as it has in Norway, its vehicles will become a common site on the island.