Tesla eyes annual sales of 10,000 cars in Germany: CEO in paper

Electric car maker Tesla Motors is aiming to sell around 10,000 cars a year in Germany by 2015 as it builds out its networks of charging stations, its chief executive told a German paper.

"I have confidence in the German consumer," Tesla Chief executive Elon Musk was quoted as saying in an interview with Welt am Sonntag.

"Our fast charging stations should cover around half of Germany by the end of March 2014 and the entire country by the end of 2014," he said, adding he expected there to be 25 Tesla dealerships in Germany by the end of next year.

Tesla's high performance, all-electric Model S went on sale in Europe in August, and even overtook Volkswagen's Golf as the bestselling car in Norway in September.

Even vehicle sales of 10,000 would be only a small fraction of the German car market. Main industry association VDA expects sales to reach between 2.9-3.0 million cars this year from 3.08 million in 2012, and keep hovering at around 3 million vehicles in coming years.

The Model S costs from 71,400 euros ($98,500) in Germany, according to the group's website.

Tesla is currently working on developing a third-generation electric car by 2017 that will cost between $30,000 and $35,000.

($1 = 0.7250 euros)

(Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Catherine Evans)