Tesla Model S Update

In the last few weeks, it’s almost become a cliche: drivers in Silicon Valley say they see as many Tesla Model S electric luxury sedans on the roads as they do Nissan Leafs or Chevrolet Volts.

With a likely total production of perhaps 6,000 thus far, the Model S is outnumbered on U.S. roads by both Volts (34,000-plus) and Leafs (11,000-plus).

But Model S owners may be disproportionately concentrated in California, as a new piece of random data tossed out by Tesla goes to show.

In a post last night on the “Inside Tesla” blog, the company’s George Blankenship notes that, “today we registered our 3,000th Model S in the Golden State.”

If random sightings, blog posts, and observations are to be believed, large numbers of those cars seem to be concentrated in a 50-mile radius of Tesla’s Palo Alto headquarters in the heart of Silicon Valley. it’s now common to see not just one but sometimes two Model S sedans at stop lights in the Valley.

In any case, the industry and electric-car advocates alike will be waiting eagerly to see what sales numbers Tesla provides for the first quarter of 2013.

Those numbers won’t arrive until Tesla files its quarterly 10K statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in late April or early May, since Tesla doesn’t see fit to provide monthly sales numbers like every other operating automaker.

We’ll also see if Tesla provides an actual number or continues with the practice it started last quarter of stating “approximate” deliveries.

In any case, industry analysts who watch Tesla data obsessively can take note: The Company says there are now 3,000 Model S cars on California roads.