Tesla is finally going to expand in Eastern Europe, says Elon Musk in response to plea from owners

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says that the automaker is finally going to expand in Eastern Europe in response to a plea from Ukranian owners.

It has been a while since Tesla expanded to new markets, but we expect expansions by the end of the year.

The automaker is already covering most of Europe, but there are still many smaller European auto markets where Tesla is not directly selling and servicing its vehicles — mainly in Eastern Europe.

Earlier this year, we reported that Tesla is expanding in the Czech Republic and Iceland this year.

Now Tesla is also planning to enter other Eastern European markets.

In the markets where Tesla is not officially selling and servicing its cars, some people buy them in other countries and import them, which comes with some issues.

Ukraine is one of those markets and local owners sent a plea for Tesla to deploy Superchargers and Service centers in the country:

CEO Elon Musk acknowledged their plea in a tweet (below) and when asked about expansion in Eastern Europe in general in 2020, he said “probably sooner”.

Ok

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 26, 2019

Those pleas to Musk and Tesla have worked before. We have seen similar situations in Iceland and Portugal.

Electrek’s Take

Despite not officially being available in most Eastern European markets, we are seeing some decent demand for Tesla in some countries.

Even without internet connection support, Supercharger stations, or service, hundreds of people imported Tesla vehicles in Russia.

Local owners even helped install charging stations between Europe in Moscow in 2018 just in time for the FIFA World Cup.

Russian bought 1.8 million new cars in 2018 and luxury automakers like Mercedes-Benz and BMW sell over 30,000 cars per year in the market.

Ukraine is a much smaller market with fewer than 100,000 new car sales over the last few years.

But there are still many forward-thinking people in those markets looking for compelling electric vehicles and Tesla could find some success in those markets. It could be interesting.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.