Despite the coronavirus outbreak impacting sales in the last few weeks of the first quarter of 2020, the Tesla Model 3 was still able to earn the title of the best selling car in any segment in California.
In the fourth quarter of 2019, the Tesla Model 3 for the first time outsold the likes of the Toyota Corolla and Honda Accord. It was not able to topple the perennial best seller, the Honda Civic, which had more than 15,000 more registrations during the fourth quarter (75,915 vs. 59,514).
Based on new figures released by the The California New Car Dealers Association (CNCDA), Tesla was able to turn the tables in the first three months of 2020 and outsell the Honda Civic, which can be bought for less than $20,000 USD.
According to the CNCDA there were 18,001 registrations of the Honda Civic in the first quarter. Meanwhile, in the same period, the Model 3 saw 18,856 registrations, topping the Honda Civic by 855 registrations.
In addition to beating the Honda Civic, the Tesla Model 3 sold 6 times as many cars as its closest competitor in its “Near Luxury” segment, the BMW 3-Series (3,473). The Model 3 took more than half of the segment, capturing a 52.2% market share, while the 3-Series took just 9.6%.
In looking at overall market share, Tesla was able to increase from 4.0% in all of 2019 to 4.6% in the first quarter of 2020. That was enough to put Tesla 6th overall behind market share leader Toyota (17.0%), but well ahead of BMW (3.5%), Mercedes Benz (3.3%), Lexus (3.1%), and Audi (2.2%).
When the Tesla Model 3 outsells the Honda Civic, a car that has been around since 1972 and sold more than 18 million vehicles around the world (via Wikipedia), the auto industry better take notice. Since the first Model S was released in 2012, legacy automakers have been dragging their feet and have so far been unable to match Tesla in building a quality electric vehicle that has the range, looks, and technology that people want.
