Tesla is leaving all other luxury car makers in the dust when it comes to sales. Not only did the American automaker outsell every other luxury brand in the US for 2022, but it did so by a huge margin. Tesla’s sales grew by an impressive 40%, while BMW, the former leader, saw a drop in sales of over 5%.
According to a report by Automotive News, Tesla had a whopping 484,351 new car registrations in the US in 2022. In contrast, BMW had 327,929 new car registrations for the year, and Mercedes-Benz’s sales were essentially flat, with 269,511 new registrations in 2022. It’s important to note that Tesla only produces EVs and only sells four models, which makes their achievement all the more impressive.
It’s also worth noting that Tesla and CEO Elon Musk don’t consider rival EVs to be their main competition. Instead, the company sees gas-powered cars as their primary target. Tesla’s mission is to lead the transition to EVs, and by outselling luxury brands that primarily produce gas-powered vehicles, they are making significant progress towards that goal.
In 2022, luxury brands’ total registrations were down 3.5%, at just over 2 million. However, Tesla’s sales helped keep this number up significantly. If you remove Tesla from the mix of luxury registrations, the other brands were collectively down 11%. When it comes to EV sales, BMW had only about 14,000 registrations in 2022, and Mercedes had around 11,500. Compare these figures to Tesla’s almost 485,000 sales, and it’s clear who is leading the charge in the EV market.
While Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y made up the majority of the company’s sales in 2022, it’s worth noting that Tesla’s small lineup is knocking it out of the park compared to the much larger lineups of successful, legacy automakers. It’s a significant milestone in the transition to EVs, and one that underscores Tesla’s dominance in the industry. As Tesla continues to push the boundaries of EV technology, it’s clear that the rest of the industry has a lot of catching up to do.
