We told you last month that Tesla dominated the electric vehicle (EV) market in California in 2022, selling 2.6x more EVs than all other automakers combined. As it turns out that dominance extended beyond the EV segment as Tesla also had the two best selling vehicles overall in the state last year.
According to new data published on Wednesday by the California New Car Dealers Association (CNCDA) the Model Y was the most popular car in California in 2022 with 87,257 new registrations from January to December. In second place was also a Tesla, the Model 3, which had 78,934 registrations during the same time period.
The performance by both the Model Y and Model 3 was more than dominant as the third place vehicle, the Toyota RAV4, was nearly 30,000 units behind the Model Y. The popular gas-powered SUV recorded 59,794 registrations. In fourth place was the Toyota Camry with 55,967 registrations.
| Vehicle | Registrations |
| Tesla Model Y | 87,257 |
| Tesla Model 3 | 78,934 |
| Toyota Camry | 59,794 |
| Toyota Corolla | 55,967 |
While taking the top two spots in the California auto market, the largest and most competitive market in the US, is a major accomplishment for Tesla, the company as a brand bucked the trend and recorded a 54.2% increase in registrations from 2021 to 2022. This was more than double the increase compared to that of the second place automaker, Genesis, which sells far fewer cars than Tesla does (just 56,410 across the entire country last year).
Only Cadillac (3.7%), Mercedes Benz (3.4%), and Kia (2.4%) were able to post positive trends in 2022, while all other automaker were in the red posting anywhere from a 1.7% decline for GMC to a massive 42.4% drop for Infiniti.
Not to be left out, the Model S and Model X also had strong showing in their respective segments. For the Model S it topped the Luxury High End Sports Cars segment with 9.234 registrations, nearly double that of the second place BMW 5-Series (4,898). The Model X placed fourth in the Luxury Mid Size SUV segment, amassing 11,273 registrations last year for a 12.3% share in the segment. Despite being in fourth place the Model X was only 4,720 units behind the first place Lexus RX (15,993).
With the 54.2% increase in registrations Tesla now has an 11.2% market share in California, which as we noted before is the largest and most competitive in the US, an impressive accomplishment for an EV-only automaker. This figure is nearly double the market share it had in California in 2021 when it held 6.5% of the overall car market in the state.
