Tesla Now Selling Demo Vehicles Because Demand Is So High

Dec. 25, 2022 9:06 AM ET by Jay Traugott Electric Vehicles / 5 Comments

Time to push end-of-year sales to the maximum.

Demand for new Teslas is so high right now the automaker has authorized its North American stores to begin selling the display and test-drive vehicles. The news comes from Electrek and it should not come as a huge surprise. Not only is the business quarter about to end, but also the year itself. Automakers are anxious to end the year and quarter on a high note and Tesla is certainly no exception.

Over the past few weeks alone, the EV-only automaker has issued several incentives on new vehicles, which is almost unheard of for Tesla. For example, it offered a $3,750 discount to US customers if they take delivery of a new vehicle this month. It doesn't matter if it's a fully-loaded Model S Plaid or the least expensive Model 3 possible.

2017-2023 Tesla Model 3 Driving Front Angle

2017-2023 Tesla Model 3 Driving Back View

Tesla then upped the offer with 10,000 free supercharging miles, again for those who take delivery this month. The incentives still did not stop there.

This past week, Tesla upped that discount amount to $7,500 for US-based vehicles to be delivered next month. Coincidence or not, that's the equivalent of the full federal tax credit for electric vehicles. Not at all surprisingly, people have responded to these offers in droves, hence Tesla's decision to begin selling those demo vehicles.

The hottest Tesla market in the country, the San Francisco Bay Area, for example, hardly has any new Model 3s in stock. There are some Model Ys but not many. A few hours south in Los Angeles, as of this writing, there's only one Model 3 available and less than two dozen Model Ys.

2020-2023 Tesla Model Y Driving Front Angle

2020-2023 Tesla Model Y Rear Perspective Driving

2020-2023 Tesla Model Y Rear Passenger Seats

New York City's inventory is slightly better. Both the Fremont and Texas Gigafactories continue to churn out vehicles but the vast majority of those are pre-sold. Despite Tesla CEO Elon Musk buying and becoming CEO of Twitter (another matter entirely), Tesla is currently on course to surpass its previous delivery record in the US and globally.

The previous record was set just last quarter with over 343,000 vehicles. By the end of next week (and 2022), the carmaker will likely have delivered over 400,000 vehicles.