Tesla just outsold Toyota in California during the second quarter. For any brand that’s a huge win but for one with just four available models to choose from it’s a statement. Deeper digging into the numbers shows just how far ahead the Model Y and Model 3 put Tesla over most of the competition.
Dealers in California might be steaming after they read a new report from their very own California New Car Dealers Association. That’s because it shows that they’re certainly missing out on a lot of cash due to Tesla’s direct-to-consumer sales model. Last year, California dealers likely lost nearly $1 billion due to that sales model among Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid.
This year that figure will likely go up as Tesla just beat Toyota during the second quarter in overall registrations. According to the CNCDA’s own data, Californians registered 69,212 Teslas during the second quarter. That’s a slight victory over the 67,482 Toyotas registered during that same time.
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Notably, Toyota is still the leader in total registrations over the course of the year, with 133,375 to Tesla’s 123,482. Nevertheless, those figures represent a 6.5 percent decline for Toyota and a 36.7 percent increase for Tesla year over year. While it’s certainly plausible that Toyota manages to rally and maintain the lead, it doesn’t seem very likely.
Tesla manages to succeed in the way it does with just four models for customers to choose from and two make up the vast majority of these sales. 41,718 of these registrations are of the Model 3 sedan while a whopping 74,765 are of the wildly popular Model Y crossover.
The next closest competitor is the Toyota Camry with 27,169 followed by the RAV4 with 26,032, and the Ford F-Series with 21,288. Tesla is gapping the competition on the sales sheet the way that it does at the drag strip. Will Toyota, Ford, or any other competitor manage to walk around them at the end of the year? Perhaps, but the way things are, the odds are in Tesla’s favor.
