World leader in electric vehicles Tesla has been steadily increasing its market capitalization for several years. Musk’s manufacturer may be credited with hastening the adoption of electric automobiles with the Model S and succeeding models.
While the company isn’t without its flaws like the delay in the production of the Cybertruck, consumers lodging several quality complaints etc. Still, the company may just become the most popular luxury automobile in the United States.
Tesla does not publish sales in the United States separately from sales elsewhere in the world. Because the business is obligated to declare sales in many countries, its US sales must be calculated by combining worldwide data and working backward to figure out how many electric vehicles it sold on American soil.
But, according to Automotive News, Tesla may overtake BMW as America’s best-selling luxury automobile brand, as the company does not distinguish domestic and worldwide sales. This is based on statistics from new automobile registrations in the United States, which are a few weeks behind sales.
Automotive News reports that the latest registration figures for November 2021 confirm Tesla’s sales dominance, citing data from banking firm Experian. There were 303,246 Tesla automobiles registered in the United States as of November last year. BMW, located in Munich, sold 336,644 vehicles over the same time period.
However, the automotive news site points out that sales data and vehicle registrations are not the same thing, since a car might be sold one month and registered the next.
Furthermore, companies like Cox Automotive have access to more data, such as registration information, which may be used to determine how many Tesla cars were sold in the United States during a certain period of time. While the data are unlikely to be exact, such groups usually don’t release them until they’ve gone to tremendous measures to ensure they’re as accurate as possible.
That said, Cox has suggested that Tesla outsold BMW in the US in 2021. The automotive services company shared:
According to Cox, Tesla sold 352,471 cars in the United States last year, representing a 71% increase over the 205,600 Tesla vehicles sold in 2020. Cox also points out that Model Y crossovers accounted for a significant portion of Tesla’s US sales. Tesla sold 190,393 Model Y crossovers and 121,877 Model 3 sedans in the United States in 2021, according to a study by Cox Automotive.
BMW, on the other hand, sold 336,644 automobiles in the United States last year. Lexus sold 304,476 automobiles, while Mercedes sold 276,102, according to Cox.
“Tesla didn’t only dominate the EV market, Tesla dominated the overall luxury market, outselling Audi, BMW, Lexus, and Mercedes-Benz in the U.S.”
With over 42,000 Tesla registrations in 2021, it’s very likely that it would outdo BMW – if it sold as many cars or more in December. Speaking to Automotive News, Jessica Caldwell of Edmunds remarked that even if Tesla doesn’t clinch sales honors, it’s still “remarkable that they have risen to the top in a short period of time, considering collapse seemed entirely possible a few years ago.”
Tesla has not only rewritten the luxury automobile industry rule book and snatched clients from well-known European luxury manufacturers, but it has also appealed to an altogether new sort of customer in the last decade or so. “[Tesla] is providing something a little different to entice rich people who may not have previously prioritized buying a Mercedes-Benz or BMW, even if they could afford it,” added Caldwell.
But it’s not only industry insiders who believe a sales takeover is a distinct possibility. Last year, according to Twitter user Troy Teslike, a well-known Tesla devotee with over 46,000 followers, Tesla sold over 360,000 automobiles. In the past, the Tesla devotee has been successful in accurately predicting the brand’s sales results.
It remains to be seen if Tesla establishes supremacy in the US luxury vehicle sales competition, but Elon Musk’s forward-thinking EV maker appears to be on the right track.