After trailing Mercedes Benz for most of the year, a strong September has helped Tesla overtake the German automaker and claim the 3rd spot in luxury vehicle registrations in the US.
According to data from Experian, a total of 230,855 Tesla vehicles have been registered in the US through the first nine months of the year.
That was more than enough to pass Mercedes, which now sits in fourth place with 213,708 registrations.
If Tesla continues on its torrid pace, it has a good shot at overtaking Lexus and BMW by the end of the year. The two automakers took the top two spots with 245,864 and 259,237 registrations respectively.
When compared to the same time period in 2020, Tesla registrations increased 76%, compared to Lexus (+33%) and BMW (+36%), according to a report by Automotive News.
Tesla’s performance is particularly impressive when you consider it was done with just two vehicles for most of the year. It was in June that the company restarted deliveries of the Model S, and only last month for the Model X.
Then there are the global supply chain problems, in particular semiconductor shortages, that have been hampering automakers around the world.
Tesla has been able to handle the chip shortage better than most by pivoting and rewriting software to work with new chip suppliers.
Tesla’s growth is currently hampered by supply, not demand. Only the Fremont factory in California is producing cars for North America.
That pressure will be relieved somewhat when Giga Texas opens, which based on the pace of construction likely won’t happen until early 2022.
It will also take some time for production at the new factory to ramp up, something which Elon Musk expects to happen towards the end of 2022.
