Practically everyone in Norway — or at least 90 percent of them — will be within 200 miles of one of Tesla’s at least six Superchargers, which it’s been building out across the country, according to the company. The 200-mile range is important because that puts most of the country’s inhabitants within driving range using one of Tesla’s Model S electric cars (so that’s the amount of miles that can be covered on a single charge of the battery) and a Tesla Supercharger.
Norway is a flagship market for Tesla’s expansion plans into Europe this Summer. Earlier this month the company delivered its first cars to European owners in Norway, Switzerland and the Netherlands, and sent the first car in Europe to an owner in Oslo. Tesla said in the second quarter of the year it made “several hundred” Model S cars for service loaners, customer test drives and deliveries to customers in Europe, and in 2013 Tesla plans to deliver 800 cars alone to Norwegian customers.
Europe could end up being a substantial market for Tesla. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said conservatively he expects at least half the amount of sales of the Model S in Europe as there have been in North America, and there could end up being as many sales in Europe as North America.
In the coming weeks Tesla plans to open new retail design stores in Brussels, London and Amsterdam. I’ve been trying to stake out exactly where the London store will be, and rumors are it’s in one of the Westfield Malls. I’ve been to the Westfield Mall in Stratford and it seems like a good fit for a Tesla flagship London store.
Tesla has mapped out the address and locations of the six Superchargers in Norway here, if you want to drive to them and use them. Four have been available for some time, and two more will open today.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
- After Solyndra: analyzing the solar industry
- Green IT Q1: Cleantech Breaking Out — and Bracing for Hard Times
- The fourth quarter of 2012 in cleantech