Porsche has taken down payments from 30,000 consumers in Europe for its Taycan, the luxury automaker’s first fully electric model, CEO Oliver Blume informed Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper.
These consumers have made down payments of 2,500 euros each and 10,000 of them have already booked an order to purchase a Taycan, Blume said, adding that this number exceeded the firm’s expectations.
Porsche, which is starting deliveries of the Taycan to U.S. dealerships this month and to other markets shortly thereafter, is preparing to deliver 20,000 Taycans in 2020.
Porsche is under pressure from rival Tesla, which announced earlier month that it will build its first European factory and design center near Berlin.
The purchase contract for the site is presently being negotiated and construction of the factory will start in the spring of 2020, the Bild newspaper wrote on Wednesday.