Tesla narrowly missed out on becoming America’s leading luxury car brand in 2021 when BMW managed to hang on to the top spot, but early figures suggest the EV company is cruising towards a 2022 victory.
New figures from Experian suggest Tesla’s January sales registrations rose by an impressive 49 percent versus the same time last year to a total of 37,162 vehicles. That compares with an 8.2 percent rise to 30,563 units for BMW.
Tesla’s performance is particularly impressive when you consider that it sells only fully electric vehicles, while BMW’s tally, in common with those for other brands, also includes combustion-engined vehicles and hybrids.
BMW won’t be the only legacy automaker disappointed by Experian’s latest data release. The figures reveal that Lexus registrations fell 6 percent to 24,843 in January, but the big loser was Mercedes, which saw its numbers fall 20 percent to just 22,022.
Tesla Model Y Is America’s Top-Selling EV
The news that Tesla has taken an early lead won’t be a huge surprise to either Tesla or BMW. While BMW registered a total of 347,453 vehicles in 2021 compared with 342,412 for Tesla, the American company’s registrations swelled by 71 percent that year versus 2020, but BMW’s only grew by 24 percent.
And as Automotive News highlights, Tesla has several advantages in its favor that could help make 2022 a number year, including a new Texas plant (though that won’t be ready until the end of 2022), plus plans to expand output at its Fremont factory as high as 600,000 units.
Other interesting nuggets to come from Experian’s number crunching include a 62 percent rise in EV registrations in January. Electric cars accounted for 50,384 new vehicles, taking 4.3 percent of the market, and of those, 18,549 were the Tesla Model Y, which is currently America’ favorite EV. The Tesla Model 3 (13,604) and Model S (3,903) took second and third spot, while the fourth-place Mustang Mach-E found only 2,781 buyers.
H/T to Automotive News
Keyword: Tesla Jumps Ahead Of BMW In Race To Be Luxury Champ