Keen-eyed observers will have noticed that more and more automakers are trying to advertise themselves as premium and 2021’s first-quarter sales a great example of why. The luxury segment saw staggering sales in the first three months of the year.
Sales of luxury vehicles in the US rose by about 20% in Q1 2021. Although that’s impressive, the industry got a bit of help thanks to a pandemic-slowed Q1 2020. Still, its increase was considerably larger than the wider industry’s 12% growth.
As a result of sales of luxury vehicles rising faster than the rest of the industry, it captured 15.2% of the US auto market, the highest seen since the ’90s, per Automotive News.
And sales look set to continue rising. As automakers pour more resources into electric vehicles and crossovers, those segments continue to rise. Sales of EVs took 14.5% of the US market in Q1, up from 8.9% in 2020.
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But luxury buyers are even more eager to buy up EVs. They made up 19% of the luxury market in Q1 2021, up from 12.25% a year ago.
Meanwhile, as we’ve all heard a million times before, sales of luxury crossovers only continue to strengthen. Almost all luxury automakers report strong SUV sales, while Genesis’ GV80 outsold every one of its passenger cars in Q1 2021.
“Luxury crossovers and SUVs of all sizes are hot,” said Michelle Krebs, executive analyst at Autotrader told Automotive News. “Luxury cars, generally, are not.”
While demand looks like it will stay strong in Q2, keeping dealerships stocked may prove challenging. With the global chip shortage affecting all automakers, the question for the near future may simply be who can keep up with customer demand.
