Elon Musk’s winning bet in Greece

By Giorgos Lampiris

An informal bet – that of the most sales of purely electric cars in Greece – seems to be won by one of the youngest and still promising players of the global market, Elon Musk. The sui generis businessman and richest man in the world according to Forbes may have recently announced via twitter that he will acquire British football club Manchester United, but his name cannot help but be immediately associated with Tesla’s all-electric cars.

Regarding our country, Tesla, which arrived in the Greek market with its vehicles, developing commercial activity only in 2020, is currently the company with the highest sales in the field of exclusively electric cars (BEV) against traditional competition forces.

In 2021, it recorded a turnover in Greece of 29.5 million euros, compared to 1.3 million euros, which was the corresponding amount in 2020. We will remind you that it also maintains a research and development center in the Lefkippos Technology Park of the “Demokritos” Natural Sciences Research Center. However, last year only 3% of Tesla’s sales in our country came from research activity, while the remaining 97% was the result of its commercial activity due to the sale of cars, having registered 606 vehicles.

In our country, it maintains a car service and delivery center at the facilities of the FMS company in the area of ​​Rentis, while the operation of the first car exhibition on Kifissias Avenue is soon to come.

How many electrics were sold in Greece in the first 7 months of 2022

In any case, of course, Tesla only produces electric cars, addressing exclusively buyers who wish to acquire the specific vehicles and purely electric, as it does not have, for example, hybrid (PHEV) cars that combine electricity and fuel like other car manufacturers.

In total, 1,513 electric cars were sold in Greece in the 7 months from January to July 2022 (227 in July alone), a number that corresponds to only 2.3% of the total sales in our country in the same period. Of these 1,513 that were registered, almost 25% (290 cars) were from Tesla.

Looking at the pure electric car market in Greece, in the seven months of 2021 Tesla had sold a total of 172 Model Y vehicles as well as 118 Model 3 vehicles, a total of 290 units of both models.

Fiat, with the 500, is the second most popular player in the list of exclusively electric cars in Greece with 144 sales in the period January – July 2022. Accordingly, Volkswagen had sold 117 ID.4 vehicles and 77 purely electric ID cars in the same period. 3. Mercedes sold 67 cars of the all-electric EQA model, also being one of the most popular brands on the market in this category.

Volvo also has an exclusively electric model, however, the figures of the Association of Importers of Automobile Dealers jointly record the sales of the hybrid model as well as the pure electric model, which in total amounted to 241 cars in the seven months. However, Volvo’s electric car is also in the top ten of the most popular models in the Greek market.