Tesla = 15% of luxury car sales in the United States
Cars
Published on April 6, 2019 |
by Zachary Shahan
6. April 201[ads1]9 by Zachary Shahan
Tesla not won the title of top-selling luxury car manufacturer in the first quarter of 2019 in the United States, and also not the top list of luxury car manufacturers (cars + SUVs / CUVs / trucks). Nevertheless, the Silicon Valley firm lived on the podium despite a 50% reduction in the federal EV tax credit to Tesla buyers, and despite the fact that most Tesla cars were shipped abroad (with model 3 making it abroad for the first time) 19659007] Overall, Tesla only pulled BMW and Mercedes-Benz in first-class car sales. It holds 15% of this part of the car market.
If you look at all luxury cars (not just cars), Tesla falls several places and joins up # 10 in the luxury car manufacturer market. It had 7% of the market in the first quarter of 2019.
What do we do about all this? Well, there are certainly drastically different ways of interpreting results and majority trends. There are also very different implications for Tesla's future.
First of all, it is worth remembering that Tesla sells only three models – a large sedan, medium sized sedan and large or medium sized SUV (depending on how you measure). The other car manufacturers have several different models for different tastes, budgets and simply choices. Most notable is that Tesla lacks a small SUV / crossover, which of course will be Tesla Model Y.
Even with only three models, it is easy to see a lot of space for Tesla to grow. As you will see in a forthcoming sales report, the Tesla Model 3 was the first luxury car in the US in the first quarter, but it only had 16% of the small and medium-sized luxury car market. I say "only" because model 3 is significantly better than the competition and also has a much lower total cost of ownership. In fact, the Tesla Model 3's 5-10 year total cost of ownership is competitive with that of the top 10 best-selling cars in the country, which Model 3 absolutely crushes, are virtually each other.
Whether by stealing sales from premium-class competitors or mass-market cars, Model 3 has plenty of room to grow. Apart from regular consumers, consider the attractiveness of Model 3 for fleet buyers, car rental companies, etc. Drivers may feel that they are in much higher class vehicles – or even pay the price for that class – while owners benefit from Camry-like costs and probably industry-leading resale values.
In addition, apart from the model 3's potential for taking more market share, Model S and Model X are undoubtedly much more competitive than first quarter sales. It is unclear what happened to these models in the first quarter, but they should come back with time.
The first barrier to Tesla's consumer demand growth is lack of consumer awareness and experience. Many Americans still don't know anything about Tesla. Many others have gathered their (wrong) information from misleading or simply false new reports. They believe that Teslas is not safe (although they are the safest vehicles on the market), Tesla is in a precarious economic situation (although it is not) and buying a Tesla does not give any noticeable advantage over a "normal" "car (clearly, it's a ridiculous assumption).
More consumers need to learn about Tesla and experience a Tesla. There are many ways they can gain that knowledge and experience. We see how effective Tesla's efforts to attract new buyers are in the coming quarters and years. Keep up to date and let us know if you find any interesting information.
Interested in buying a Tesla? Need a referral code to get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging? Use our: http://ts.la/tomasz7234 (or not – up to you).
About the Author
Zachary Shahan Zach is attempting to help the community help itself (and other species). He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as his director and editor in chief. He is also the president of Important Media and the director / founder of EV Obsession and Solar Love . Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy and energy storage expert. He has presented cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the United States and Canada.
Zach has long-term investments in TSLA, FSLR, SPWR, SEDG, and ABB. After many years of sun and EV, he simply has a lot of faith in these companies and feels they are good cleantech companies to invest in. But he does not offer professional investment advice and will not be responsible for losing money, so hope for conclusions.
