The Tesla Model 3 was the best-selling vehicle in California through the first quarter of the year.
During the first three months of the year, a total of 18,856 Model 3s were sold across the state. That is a higher number than recorded by any other single model in any other segment of the market. The second highest-selling vehicle in California through Q1 was the Honda Civic, which topped out the Compact segment with 18,001 sales followed by the Toyota Camry that was the highest selling mid-size vehicle with 17,871 units sold, and the Toyota RAV4 which was the fourth-highest selling vehicle with 17,261 new registrations.
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In the ‘Near Luxury’ segment that the Model 3 competes in, it easily outsold the BMW 3-Series (3,473 sales), Lexus ES (2,703 sales), Mercedes-Benz C-Class (2,199 sales), and Audi A4 (1,099 sales), as data from the California New Car Dealers Association reveals.
Of course, it is important to note that this was no normal quarter due to stay-at-home orders issued across the United States due to the coronavirus pandemic. Car dealerships across California were closed as they weren’t deemed essential businesses, clearly impacting sales. Tesla, meanwhile, was in the unique position to capitalize on its online-focused sales model whereas many other car manufacturers and franchised dealerships struggled to adjust to online sales.
Looking at car sales in California through Q1 more broadly, Tesla was one of only 10 automakers to register an increase in new car registrations compared to Q1 2019. Genesis recorded the largest jump with sales rising by 323.3 per cent from 189 vehicles to 800. Other companies to increase sales in Q1 included Audi (8.6 per cent), Chrysler (57.8 per cent), GMC (13.5 per cent), Kia (9.2 per cent), Lincoln (15.3 per cent), Mitsubishi (9.4 per cent), Ram (92 per cent), Tesla (9.3 per cent), and Volvo (10.7 per cent).
