Tesla Vehicles Finally Come To Africa

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Tesla recently announced that the company’s vehicles will now be available in an African country for the first time ever. Starting in the middle of this year, the Model 3 and Y will be available in Morocco. Morocco was always going to be the first one, given its proximity to Europe, where Tesla already has a big presence. Holiday makers from Europe have been taking their Teslas to Morocco for a long time now, and therefore Tesla opened a Supercharger network in Morocco a while ago. There is also a strong local Tesla fanbase there with Moroccans independently importing Teslas into the country. Now Moroccans will have official Tesla dealerships and can soon get brand new Teslas with full backup service and warranties. 

Tesla did have some presence on the African continent before. A small office in Cape Town some years back focused on the energy side of Tesla’s business (Powerpacks). Powerwalls have been available in South Africa since the first-generation Powerwall. The Powerwall 3 is also now available in South Africa. Back to the vehicle side of things, it’s good to see another brand bridging in electric vehicles, albeit in one country for now. The continent has 54 countries, and if they do their due diligence properly, they could find more markets to get good sales.

Let’s look at the overall Morocco market for example. In 2025, just over 235,000 brand new cars were sold in Morocco, up 33% from 2024. These were mostly ICE vehicles. Now let’s look at Africa’s largest market for new vehicle sales, South Africa. In 2025, just under 600,000 brand new vehicles were sold in South Africa in the overall market, the highest number in over a decade and up 15.7% year on year. That’s almost 3 times the number of vehicles sold in Morocco. Over 96% of these sales were ICE vehicles, though. So, South Africa presents a much larger addressable market and should have a bigger market for Tesla to take advantage of. In fact, South Africa is a larger vehicle market than a lot of countries where Tesla has had a presence for years. 

Tesla could also be encouraged by the fact that new brands seem to be catching on fast in South Africa. For example, two brands from Chery Group doing well in South Africa are Omoda and Jaecoo. Omoda & Jaecoo South Africa sales have officially surpassed 20,000 total vehicles since launching in the local market in 2023. The brand has now achieved a cumulative sales figure of 20,857 units. Part of this growth has been fueled by growing market interest in electrified mobility. Plug-in hybrid sales from the brands continue to rise, with 590 SHS (Super Hybrid System) models already contributing to overall sales volumes. The J7 SHS, in particular, has shown strong momentum, with 317 units sold since its debut in June 2025. The C9 SHS, which carries a starting price of R999,900, has also performed well despite being the most premium offering in the Omoda & Jaecoo lineup.

There are several countries now that have pro EV policies on the African continent and could be markets of interest for Tesla. It’s good to see that Tesla is at least now looking into the African market through this Morocco launch. Hopefully more markets will follow.