Elon Musk made headlines again in a rather spectacular and controversial interview with the New York Times.
He said so many wild things that we’d need to write a novel to cover them all.
But there’s one thing he said that truly stands out if you’re into cars.
READ MORE: Cybertruck beats Porsche 911 in epic drag race whilst towing Porsche 911
NYT’s Andrew Ross Sorkin asked Musk what he thinks about the current state of the car world.
Specifically, he pointed out that several manufacturers are trying to tell the government to slow down on EVs because demand isn’t that great.
But Musk begs to differ.
“If you make electric cars compelling enough, people will buy it. No questions about it”, Musk told the New York Times.
Musk then proceeded to use the Chinese market as a prime example because the list of best-selling cars in China is basically an EV fest.
And then he went further.
“The best reputation of that is that the Tesla Model Y will be the best-selling car, of any kind, on Earth this year,” Musk added.
That’s a bold claim.
While there’s no doubt that Tesla is perfectly capable of shifting units in great quantity, there’s a giant elephant in the room that takes the shape of the Ford F-Series.
The Ford F-Series truck is by far the best-selling vehicle on the planet, year in year out, even though it’s basically only sold in North America.
But perhaps that’s the catch right there.
Musk said “car”, not truck, so maybe he wasn’t including the Chevy Silverado or the F-150 in his claim.
The thing is, he might be right.
Tesla sold over 209,000 units in Europe as of December 1, 2023, making it the best-selling car in the continent.
And the Tesla Model Y is also the world’s best-selling car in Q1 2023.
So if you put 2 and 2 together, his prediction might be accurate.
Tesla vehicles are certainly in demand.
We’ve seen it with the Cybertruck, arguably the most hyped vehicle of the year, which has already attracted over 1.9 million pre-orders.
After a four-year wait, the first Cybertrucks were finally delivered to owners and we know have a price, too.
It starts at $69,990.
