Tesla has overtaken Mercedes-Benz as the third best-selling luxury vehicle brand in the U.S. through the first three quarters of the year.
Data from Experian reveals that there have been 230,855 total Tesla registrations across the U.S. this year through September, overtaking Mercedes-Benz with 213,708. BMW leads the way with 259,237 registrations and is followed behind by Lexus in second place with 245,864 registrations.
Sales have been particularly strong for Tesla this year with registrations rising by 76 per cent compared with the January-September period last year. By comparison, Lexus sales have jumped 33 per cent over the same period while BMW sales have spiked 36 per cent, Auto News reports.
“It might be a bit early to say Tesla is surpassing Mercedes in sales permanently, but the fact that it’s managed to do so with a much more limited product line is impressive”, executive director of insights at Edmunds, Jessica Caldwell told Auto News. “Given where we are with the chip shortage, it’s probably premature to make any sweeping long-term declarations as automakers are grappling with varying degrees of difficulty, but it does show the strength of Tesla.”
Admittedly, it’s worth pointing out that there remains some debate where Tesla should even be considered a luxury brand in the same vein as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, and Audi.
Caldwell acknowledged that “Tesla will eventually lose some of its cachet” as “no brand can be the ‘it brand’ forever,” but she added that Tesla’s expanding portfolio with the upcoming Cybertruck will see it “gain in opportunities for volume growth, and mainstream luxury players will be under siege for quite a while.”
