Interest in Tesla Shows Steady Uptrend With Model 3 Entering Production
The new sedan is bringing additional attention to the popular brand.
The Model 3 is proving to be one of the biggest booms in the electric car segment, or at least it seems that way, judging by the amount of interest shown in online search trends. Using tools made available to analyze Google's search results, a large uptick can be be seen independent of announcements made by Tesla regarding the Model 3's production.
Using Google's comparison tool, one can visualize just how much interest has been generated since the beginning of the year. Google represents term popularity as a percentage of peak popularity. For example, if a term is most popular at a given time, its value will be 100. If the term then becomes half as popular, it will be represented by a value of 50. Using this information, we can take a look at the popularity of two search terms since January 1st, 2017.
Exploring searches destined for Tesla show a peak in all-time popularity during the week of July 2nd through July 8th. Outside of that, an overall uptick of 9% has occurred from January until the week prior to the Model 3 launch, when search trends spiked. The Model 3 increased a mere 3% from January 1st until same week, and also experience a spike at 33%, only bested by the initial announcement of the vehicle in late March 2016.
Exploring what parts of the United States are interested in the Model 3 may also show a strong indication where future buyers are located. California has naturally vested the most interest in the Model 3, followed by Washington state, Utah, Arizona, and Colorado (respectively). Without surprise, this interest closely follows the density of charging stations in the most popular states. This suggests a direct relationship between a state's established EV charging infrastructure and the interest of EVs for new car buyers.
Comparatively, the United States isn't even the largest trendsetter when it comes to researching Tesla or the Model 3. Norway and Canada both surpass the U.S. in interest since not only the beginning of 2017, but also historically for the past five years.
Though the US doesn't quite have the charging infrastructure to support a large-scale switch to EVs, manufacturers are certainly thinking ahead and taking action to support the newest shift in automotive buying. These trends help to show that there is certain growing interest in EVs.
