Tesla Model 3 Claims Best-Selling Car in the UK for December 2020

The Tesla Model 3 has been selling well throughout the world, and with a strong Q4 push in many of those places, it even managed to land a top-selling car in a number of countries.

According to numbers from the UK’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), the Model 3 was the best-selling new car in the UK in December 2020 (via Autocar).

This feat comes despite a year ravaged by COVID-19, resulting in overall new car registrations falling by 29.4% year-over-year from 2019. Still, December saw a much more mild decrease comparatively, at only 10.9% down YoY.

In sum, there were a total of 1,631,064 new registrations throughout 2020 in the UK, 5,798 of which were Model 3s. Immediately following the Model 3 were the Volkswagen Golf and the Ford Fiesta, with just 4,470 and 3,367 registrations, respectively.

This marks only the second time Tesla has made it to the top of SMMT’s rankings, the last of which happened in April. Electric vehicle (EV) demand also grew significantly throughout 2020, growing 185.9% by the year’s end. Plugin hybrids also saw growth in popularity, with an increase of 91.2% in registrations.

With the world on the cusp of climate crisis, we need consumers to buy electric now more than ever. And fortunately, 2021 is going to bring more EVs than ever.