Despite all of the factors that might slow auto sales including the parts shortage, inflation, and other factors, consumers can’t seem to get their hands on new vehicles fast enough. Despite that, one segment, luxury cars, has seen a bit of a dip in recent months. Tesla, however, has not experienced that same dip and has instead taken a stranglehold on the rest of the luxury market thanks to strong production at its Freemont, California factory.
That’s significant for a number of reasons. CEO Elon Musk has publicly stated that the brand’s German and Texas plants are “money furnaces” because they haven’t been able to ramp up production yet. In addition, a multi-week shutdown due to COVID-19 at its Shanghai factory added more concern regarding worldwide production numbers.
Nevertheless, Tesla says that “June 2022 was the highest vehicle production month in Tesla’s history.” First reported by Autonews, third-party data from Experian is helping to prove that point. Over the first five months of the year, U.S. registrations of new Tesla vehicles rose 66 percent with a total of 179,574. To put it lightly, the EV giant is running away from its competition.
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BMW came in second place over the same timeline according to Experian. The German company’s 133,209 new registrations are 11 percent lower than over the same time period last year. Third place Lexus dropped 19 percent to 112,296 registrations and Mercedes-Benz just fell behind that with 110,584, which marked a 17 percent decrease.
Audi saw a huge dip though with just 67,986 registrations and a 35 percent drop from last year. That data only tells a portion of the story with regard to EVs though because it counts all vehicles, not just electrified ones. In that contest, Audi came in second among luxury brands, behind Tesla, with 6,617 new EVs registered.
Porsche came next with 3,627 and Mercedes was once again just behind in fourth place with 3,250. Premium brands Volvo and Polestar did well with 3,330 and 4,118 registrations respectively. Statistics can sometimes exaggerate the facts but it’s clear that Tesla has a big lead in the luxury space and doesn’t seem to be giving it up anytime soon.