- Tesla registrations were up 49% year over year in January
- The automaker finished 2021 second in the luxury segment
- BMW is now in second place, with sales that rose 8.2% over last year
Tesla is continuing to increase its market share and it is currently the best-selling luxury automaker in the United States for the 2022 calendar year.
Tesla took the lead from BMW with sales that have increased 49% in January over the same month in 2021. This means the Californian automaker produced 37,162 vehicles in the first four weeks of the year.
The electric automaker had been climbing in the sales ratings for a few years and it ended 2021 in second place among luxury automakers, just behind BMW and in front of Lexus.
Tesla’s early lead was also helped by the continued semiconductor shortage and the supply issues caused by instability in Europe which affect most automakers and especially German ones.
Tesla is able to better cope with those constraints du to the high level of integration of its supply chain, which means it is less dependent to outside suppliers than most other automakers and it can better react to market shifts by adjusting its production.
BMW’s sales improved 8.2%, with 30,563 units, which wasn’t enough to keep the first position and Lexus is keeping third place despite its sales which have dropped by 6% to settle at 24,843 units delivered. Mercedes-Benz is fourth, with 22,022 vehicles sold, a decrease of 20%.
More sales should be expected from Tesla later this year when its two new Giga factories in Texas and in Berlin begin regular production of vehicles in addition to its two current assembly facilities. This should further reduce the factors that limit the automaker’s total production.