At its store in Aoyama, a neighborhood in Tokyo, Tesla debuted the Model X in the Japan this weekend. With over 4 million new car sales per year, Japan is one of the world’s biggest car markets and Tesla is investing in the country.
The automaker also expanded its Supercharger network in the country ahead of the introduction of the Model X, and it plans to cover the entire market by the time it introduces the Model 3.
Though its retail and service presence in the country is still fairly limited. The company operates two stores, one in Tokyo and one in Osaka, and service center with a showroom just outside Yokohama.
Earlier this year, the automaker hired Nicolas Villeger, former President of Asian markets for the American luxury fashion company Coach, to lead the company’s effort in Japan. Tesla had problems in the market early on and couldn’t even offer navigation in the country. Now those issues have reportedly been mostly resolved.
The company doesn’t often update sales numbers per market, but back in 2014t Tesla reportedly had over 2,000 Model S sedans on order in Japan, according to then Tesla CIO Jay Vijayan . When CEO Elon Musk visited the country, he also emphasized to Japanese buyers, who often prefer buying domestic brands like Toyota or Honda, that there’s a lot of Japenese engineering and manufacturing in Tesla’s vehicles.
Tesla’s sole vehicle battery supplier is the Japanese electronics giant Panasonic.
Now in a marketing effort in the market this week, Tesla released a new promotional video featuring Model S owners in Japan:
Update: Tesla apparently put the video to private for some unknown reason. Here’s a mirror on Vimeo:
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