Tesla Model 3 hijacks sales from major brands

After Tesla reported a profit this Q3 due to strong sales of the Model 3, reverberations are being felt across the industry. Carmakers like BMW and Audi are losing the bracket for their middle class models such as the 3 series and Audi A4.

This October Audi noted a sales drop of 21 percent for their A4, that is a total of 2,267 units, in the States. The BMW 3 Series sold 3,445 times, a drop of 23 percent in the USA. Tesla sales of the Model 3 electric car however, continue to be strong.

In detail Tesla sold about 17,750 Model 3 in October, estimates Inside EVs. That is a little less than the 22,250 they sold in the record month of September. Yet, it had been an explosive Q3 period for Tesla with high sales leading to delivery bottlenecks (we reported). Now things seem to be in quieter waters.

In May and June, sales for the Model 3 exceeded 6,000 units, which then rapidly rose in July with 14,250 sales, according to the electric car maker. The trend continued through August and September with 17,800 and the previously mentioned 22,250.

In addition, the Model 3 total sales for the year stand at 95,822 so far, meaning that the company will likely close the gap to 100,000 Model 3 sales in the year of it’s release. The last time an EV had this explosive of a launch year was in 2014 when the LEAF sales hit 30,200 sales for the entire year.

On the combustion engine side however, premium model makers BMW, Audi and Mercedes say they sold a total of 117,000 vehicles so far this year. Mercedes drop of 7% was the best of the three major German automobile manufacturers. Also SUV sales did manage to equalise the drop in middle class vehicles, leading to increased overall sales growth in the U.S. for all three manufacturers.

This could change however, once Tesla launches their Model Y, a competitively priced electric SUV.

insideevs.com, boerse.ard.de (in German)