- New sales figures reveal Tesla sold more EVs than Audi did all cars during 2024.
- Audi’s sales fell by 12 percent to 1.67 million units last year, having climbed in 2023.
- Tesla registrations dropped 1.1 percent in 2024 but it still shifted 1.79 million cars.
Tesla’s decade of sales growth came to an end in 2024, but the American automaker still managed to claim at least one big scalp. Despite the downturn in its fortunes, Tesla sold more cars than premium rival Audi.
VW’s posh brand registered 1.67 million cars in 2024, that number representing a 12 percent slide compared with the previous year. Tesla’s sales also fell, but only by 1.1 percent to 1.79 million units, putting it ahead of the German automaker, as reported by Bloomberg.
Tesla’s Four Models Beat Audi’s Vast Arsenal
Tesla’s achievement is remarkable for several reasons. One is that it only sells electric vehicles, but managed to move more of them than Audi did electric, hybrid and combustion models combined. Another is that Tesla has only four model lines (five if you include the Cybertruck, but that’s currently available solely in the US and Canada), and none of its global offerings are new, although the Model 3 did at least get a facelift in time to impact the 2024 sales numbers. Audi, in contrast, has dozens of different combinations of model lines and body styles.
Related: 2025 Tesla Model Y Debuts With Cybercab Looks And Turn Signal Stalks
Audi bosses will be particularly disappointed at the news given the success it enjoyed a year prior. In 2023 Audi sold 1.9 vehicles, its best result since 2017, and one that helped it reverse three consecutive years of falling sales. Tesla, on the other hand, has been steadily growing all the way through the late 2010s and early 2020s, culminating in an incredible 2023 when its Model Y SUV was the best-selling car on the planet.
Audi vs Tesla Sales
Bloomberg notes that Audi’s sales dropped in large markets like Germany, China and North America. In general, German luxury brands have been hit by a double whammy of sharpy declining demand in China due to increasingly strong local competition and the withdrawal of EV subsidies in key European countries. But since Audi’s EV sales only fell 8 percent and its overall registrations dropped by 12 percent, it’s not fair to place all of the blame on its electric lineup.
Will Fresh Cars (And China’s AUDI) Help In 2025?
Perhaps the arrival of some new metal will make 2025 a more successful year. The elderly combustion A4 has now been replaced (by the A5), and an electric counterpart (which gets the A4 name) is on the way. Audi has also launched the A6 e-tron and Q6 e-tron electric sedans, wagons and SUVs.
The introduction of the new AUDI brand in China (all in capitals and without the four-ring logo) is also designed to help it in the world’s largest car market. A joint venture with SAIC, starting in mid-2025 it intends to launch three EVs in the mid- and full-size segments that were previewed by the E concept last November.
