First, it was some kind of flu in China.
Then, the coronavirus quickly spread across the world, being recognized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020.
In country after country, lockdown measures started to get enforced, with travel restrictions, school closures, and more measures put into place.
In somewhat of a surprise, for the first time ever, the Tesla Model 3 was the top selling vehicle in California last quarter.
Tesla doesn’t spend money on traditional advertising. But the Silicon Valley automaker has cultivated a tight-knit, dedicated community of owners and fans. In fact, Tesla’s Elon Musk has an astounding 34 million followers on Twitter. He’s built up a dynamic (albeit provocative) social media presence that helps spread the message as fast as his rockets fly.
While reporting on Elon Musk’s “Tesla stock price is too high imo” tweet and its after-effects, Fox News accidentally aired a Tesla Model Y praise package.
How do legacy automakers rationalize their slow walk to EVs?
Porsche worldwide sales were only down 5% in the first quarter of 2020, thanks to strong sales in Europe. Numbers in other world markets were far less satisfactory, however.
The whole process is incredibly polished, and could set the standard by which direct-to-consumer sales start to happen globally. That’s especially significant these days, too, now that the laws surrounding dealerships and franchises continue to get challenged by upstart EV makers. Heck, even the keys themselves are next-level — take a look for yourself!
The most popular CleanTechnica articles of the past week, naturally, included a few pieces related to the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic that’s shutting down half the world. Otherwise, hot topics were the Tesla Model Y (have to wonder how much this vehicle would dominate some portions of the news and public consciousness if not for COVID-19), the Volkswagen ID.3 and overall ID lineup/strategy, and other EV and Tesla news and analyses.
Travelling widens your view of the world. These last few months, in the midst of auto industry conferences and travel, I have suddenly been encountering situations in the auto world that really open my eyes.
We recently reported on the Tesla Model 3 being the 3rd best selling vehicle in California in 2019 as well as the Tesla Model X ranking either #1 or #4 in its class, depending on which class you put it in. Some other electric cars did quite well in California as well, though. The Chevy Bolt was the 2nd best selling subcompact car in California and the BMW i3 was the 3rd best selling “entry luxury car” there.
