Tesla mulls expanding in Europe with compact vehicles, says Musk

PARIS – U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla looks at expanding in Europe by entering the mass-market segment with a compact car, Leader Elon Musk said on Tuesday.

“Possibly in Europe it might seem sensible to complete, I guess, a concise car, perhaps a hatchback or something like that,” Musk told a European online conference on batteries hosted by the German government.

“In the U.S., the cars tend to be bigger for personal taste reasons,” he said. “In Europe, (they) are usually smaller.”

Musk said he had had some problems parking his five-meter long Tesla Model X car the german language capital Berlin.

“I had been driving one X around Berlin and we had a substantial amount of trouble finding a automobile parking space where we could fit,” he explained.

The California-based automaker currently sells four car models including its mid-sized Model 3 sedan and medium-sized Model Y sport-utility vehicle.

All its vehicles are several tens of centimeters more than Volkswagen’s Golf car, the European reference in compact sedans.

On a global level, Tesla is also because of market its new “Cybertruck” pickup within 2 yrs.

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas and Gilles Guillaume; Writing by Matthieu Protard; Editing by Jan Harvey)