The Tesla Model Y has set another record, this time in Denmark, where it has broken a 37-year old sales record to become the best selling car in a single year. The accomplishment comes as the Model Y is set to become the world’s best selling car in 2023.
You might recall a similar story about the Model Y in Denmark that we published back in October. In that story we told you how the electric SUV had broken a 10-year sales record in Denmark, with 12,944 Model Ys registered over the first 10 months of the year, surpassing a record held by the VW UP! (12,940) since 2013. At the time we said the record was notable because it came in October, giving the Model Y another 2+ months to extend the record further. And it’s a good thing it happened that way.
As it turns out, there was another record hidden in the archives that goes back even further. In 1986 the Opel Kadett was the most popular car ever, with 18,686 sales that year. According to the official Tesla Europe & Middle East account on X, the record wasn’t publicly known until now, but the Model Y has now surpassed that watermark as well.
The 1986 record is coming straight from the archives & wasn’t publicly known before, but Model Y beat them both 😛
— Tesla Europe & Middle East (@teslaeurope) December 12, 2023
According to a report from FDM.dk, the Model Y was just 10 units shy of the record on December 19, but with the Model Y averaging over 100 registrations per day, that record has now been broken. With still more than one week to go in the year, the Model Y will extend its lead even further, setting a new record that will be difficult for anyone to beat.
This record in Denmark comes one year after an equally impressive record was set in Norway last year. In 2022 the Model Y registered 16,701 sales, enough to surpass a record set in 1969 by the VW Beetle, which sold 16,699 vehicles, enough to hold the sales record for over fifty years.