BMW officially ended 2021 as the best-selling luxury car manufacturer in the United States but Tesla isn’t far behind.
From January-December last year, BMW sold 336,644 vehicles across the United States. This was a 21 per cent gain over the lackluster sales recorded in 2020 and in line with sales from 2019. However, BMW may not hold onto this crown for long.
It is understood that Tesla delivered 313,400 vehicles in the United States last year. While there remains debate about whether Tesla is a luxury automaker, particularly since it is chasing mass-market sales with the Model 3 and Model Y, it is starting to trouble the German establishment. Importantly, sales figures for Tesla are only estimates, as it doesn’t provide a breakdown by region.
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As for BMW’s most traditional rivals, Lexus also topped the 300,000 mark, delivering a total of 304,475 vehicles, helped in part by the fact that sales of its hybrid models jumped by 25 per cent.
Mercedes-Benz’s recovery from a tumultuous 2020 wasn’t quite as fruitful as BMW’s. It delivered 276,102 vehicles last year, a tiny 0.4 per cent increase from the year prior after being hit particularly hard by the semiconductor shortage. Audi ended 2021 with 196,038 deliveries in the United States.
On a global level, BMW also took the crown as the world’s top-selling luxury brand after it outsold Mercedes-Benz for the first time in five years. BMW sold a record 2.2 million vehicles during the year while Mercedes fell by 5 per cent to 2.05 million units.
