As we’ve reported previously, awareness and interest in the electric car manufacturer Tesla (as measured by internet search interest) surged following the unveiling of the Model 3 mass-market offering.
The digital market intelligence firm SimilarWeb recently released some new statistics related to that surge in internet interest — which noted that the Tesla website saw a 798% spike in views, amongst other things.
This surge in interest meant that the Tesla website experienced around 7 million combined desktop + mobile visits in just the 3 days following the unveiling of the Model 3, according to SimilarWeb. Also, interestingly, the vast majority of the internet traffic seems to have come from just the US, the UK, Canada, and Germany — though India and China saw a decent amount of interest as well, apparently.
An email sent recently to EV Obsession and CleanTechnica provides more details, including comparisons with other automakers:
Based on combined mobile and desktop visits from March 31st to April 2nd, teslamotors.com received more than 7 million US desktop and mobile visits from over 100 countries. With reservations for the Model 3 beginning on March 31, their site saw a one-day increase of traffic of 798%, with US visits jumping from 220,000 on March 31 to a peak of 1.9 million on 1 April.
In contrast on 1 April, ford.com saw 358,000 US visits on 1 April, followed by Toyota.com (320,000) and 130,000 for Nissanusa.com — competitors that typically get more traffic and have stronger brand recognition. Even one week after the launch, on 8 April, Tesla traffic remained in pole position, securing 582,670 daily visits, followed by Ford (493,926), Toyota (301,264) and Nissan (161,028) suggesting the car maker may have secured a longer term online foothold in the market.
Overall, the majority of Tesla’s web traffic over its launch period came from the United States (48%), followed by Canada (6.64%), UK (5.58%) Germany (4.25%) and India (2.41%). SimilarWeb found that 50% of Tesla’s web traffic at the launch came from organic (unpaid) search, demonstrating powerful brand recognition, and follows Tesla’s reputation as one of the car makers which has begun to lead in online search by customers. Searches were extremely targeted with 40% of desktop searches specifically for Tesla’s model “3”.
Interesting to see the actual figures for this. Speaking anecdotally here, these numbers seem to match with my own experiences having conversations with random people — awareness of the Tesla brand and its “desirability” really seems to have grown substantially since the unveiling. And all without any PR money spent….
Related: Tesla Searches Skyrocket Past Audi, VW, GM, Porsche, BMW…
Without any ADVERTISEMENT moneys. Let’s not pretend that unveiling was anything but PR ;).