Canada's first big delivery of Tesla's Model 3 like 'Christmas morning' for some owners

Swarm of electric vehicles arrive in GTA Many customers who left the dealership with the new Tesla Model 3 electric vehicle purchased the car online years ago.

The first large-scale delivery of Tesla’s much-anticipated Model 3 sedan has arrived in Canada, ending months of waiting for anxious owners who based their purchase on nothing more than online specs and photos.

Tesla enthusiast website Teslarati reported that roughly 300 examples of the Model 3 were spotted in a Toronto parking lot on Wednesday.

John Elliot from Waterloo, Ont., said he has been waiting for more than two years to get behind the wheel of the California-based automaker’s first mid-priced vehicle.

“I haven’t slept all night,” he told CTV Toronto on Wednesday. “When I was like eight years old, I worked with a horse and buggy in a milk wagon. Now here I am. I’m 76 years old, and I’m driving an electric car.”

The Model 3 starts at $45,600 before provincial green car incentives. The car is a smaller, simplified and more affordable version of the Model S sedan, according to the manufacturer’s website.

All of the vehicles in this delivery have been spoken for.

Wendy Weir, from Kingston, Ont., said her husband Lenn had been counting down the days until he could take delivery of their new wheels.

“It’s been like watching a kid trying to stay asleep so Santa Claus can come on Christmas morning,” she said. “I get it, but to me it’s just a car.”

With a report from CTV Toronto’s Scott Lightfoot