Tesla has done what it wasn’t able to do in 2021 and overtaken BMW to claim the title of the top luxury car brand in the US for 2022. This marks the first time a US automaker has held this title in nearly 25 years, and the final results weren’t even close.
In 2021 Tesla sold just 23,244 fewer vehicles than BMW in the US, but in 2022 Tesla completely flipped the book. According to estimates from the Automotive News Research & Data Center Tesla sold more than 491,000 cars in the US last year, more than 56% higher than what they were able to sell in 2021. That is a whopping 158,612 more than BMW which sold 332,388 cars in the US during the same time period, down 1.3% from 2022.
Making the accomplishment even more impressive is that Tesla increased their sales 56% while overall sales in the US luxury segment dropped by 8%.
After BMW the figures drop even further with Mercedes-Benz in third place at 286,764 sales, followed by Lexus (258,704), Audi (186,875), Cadillac (134,726), Acura (102,306), and Volvo (102,038).
With the strong year Tesla has now been able to secure two-thirds of the EV market share in the US, according to registration data from Experian. To give an idea of how much of a commanding lead that is, Tesla’s market share is more than the rest of the entire industry combined.
Now that Tesla has taken the crown as the top luxury brand in the US, the next question is who will be the one to take it away from them, and when. With BMW being more than 158,000 cars away, it looks like it will take a while for them, or anyone else to again come close to Tesla’s figures.
Editor’s note: The original version of this article said it was the first time in 28 years a US automaker held the title. Automotive News has since updated this reference to “nearly a quarter century,” without clarifying why it was changed. We apologize for any confusion.
