Tesla has announced the Model 3 has become the world’s best selling luxury sedan. In reaching the top spot, the electric sedan beat out the likes of perennial favourites, the BMW 3-Series and Mercedes Benz E-Class.
Tesla shared a chart in its Q1 2021 shareholder deck, showing the Model 3’s impressive rise since its introduction in Q3 2017. The biggest increase in sales came after the biggest decrease experienced last year during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Its rise in the second half of 2020 propelled it above the former market leader, the BMW 3-Series.
Musk commented on the achievement during the earnings call, calling it remarkable considering how young the Model 3 program is.
“This is only 3 1/2 years into production and with just 2 factories. For Model 3 to be outselling its combustion engine competitors is quite remarkable,” Musk said.
Even though the Model 3’s sales have been impressive, Musk believes it will be nothing compared to what we will see with its big brother, the Model Y.
“When it comes to Model Y, we think Model Y will be the best selling car or vehicle of any kind in the world, probably next year. I’m not 100% certain next year, but its quite likely, more likely than not that in 2022 Model Y is the best selling car or truck of any kind on the world,” Musk said.
That is a bold claim, considering the current best selling car is the Toyota Corolla at around 1.5 million vehicles each year. That figure was noted by Tesla analyst Dave Lee on Twitter, to which Musk responded by expanding on his previous comments to include parameters on revenue and number of units sold.
Seems quite likely at least based on revenue in 2022 & possibly total units in 2023
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 26, 2021
Musk’s strength in his convictions is backed up by the fact Tesla will be opening up two new Gigafactories this year in Berlin, Germany and Austin, Texas. With Giga Shanghai and Fremont producing 500,000 vehicles in 2020, and production still ramping up at both factories, a total of four factories operating next year will definitely help push Tesla towards that goal.
