Tesla continues to quickly expand electric car sales in the US and during the first quarter of 2022 and has significantly strengthened in the premium/luxury car segment.
According to Automotive News Research & Data Center estimates (via Automotive News), Tesla sales increased almost 42% year-over-year to 110,000 in Q1, which is 21.8% of the total of 503,709 for the segment.
It means that Tesla now has a very significant advantage over last year's luxury sales leader - BMW, which noted 73,714 sales (up 3.2% year-over-year) and 14.6% sales.
According to the report, almost all other brands noted a double-digit decrease in sales (often due to supply issues rather than weak demand), which intensified the effect of Tesla's domination.
Only the Genesis brand (part of Hyundai Motor Group) enjoyed a similar growth as Tesla, reaching 11,723 units (up 42.6% year-over-year).
Luxury/premium car sales in the US - Q1 2022:
- Tesla (estimated) - about 110,000 (up 41.% year-over-year) and 21.8% share
- BMW - 73,714 (up 3.2%) and 14.6% share
- Lexus - 64,365 (down 13.3%) and 12.8% share
- Mercedes-Benz (without Sprinter and Metris) - 62,251 (down 20.5%) and 12.4% share
- Audi - 35,505 (down 35.3%) and 7.0% share
- Total: 503,709 (down 10.3%)
Tesla sells only all-electric cars, which means that 21.8% are all BEVs. On top of that comes electric cars sold by other brands such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Volvo, Porsche and Jaguar.
The combined share of battery-electric cars might already be above one quarter and is heading towards one third, which does not surprise us at all.
The premium/luxury/high-end segment was always the first target for new technologies including 100% electric cars. The usually higher price of BEVs can be more easily included in the price of a premium vehicle than in a mainstream vehicle.
On top of that, buyers of premium vehicles usually have individual parking spaces/garages to accommodate overnight home charging. The third thing is that they might have other cars in the household, which means that even the range is not an issue (there is another vehicle in reserve).
The premium segment is a trailblazer of electrification and heralds the future of the mainstream segment.
