While recent headlines pegged the Warren Buffett-backed BYD as overtaking Tesla in "new energy vehicle" shipments this year - 641,000 vs 564,000 - nearly half of its sales were hybrids and not purely electric vehicles. Tesla is still the bestselling electric car brand as it held the whopping 16.7% of the market in the first quarter, followed by by Wuling with 8.9%, BMW with 6%, VW with 5.2%, and BYD with 4.8%. In Q2, as Tesla's shipments slumped due to the pandemic-induced closing of the Shanghai Gigafactory, BYD caught up quite a bit, yet it still trails Tesla in the number of purely electric vehicles sold this year.
Moreover, Tesla is trying to monopolize the luxury market in electric car sales, and its Model Y was the bestselling EV with more than 8% of the total, while Wuling's Mini EV that occupies the third place after Tesla's Model 3, is a cheap small car for the masses. Tesla's ever-rising EV prices are slowly moving most of its vehicle models in the luxury market category and its profit margins are second to none in the industry.
As if to prove the point that Tesla is not only competing, but beating luxury brands like Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, or Audi, a new research from Experian shows that Tesla sold the most luxury cars in the US in the first five months of 2022. By June, it delivered 179,574 vehicles to customers, while the second BMW sold 133,209 and the third - Lexus - shipped 112,296 luxury cars.
Tesla's car prices now start from US$46,990 for a lowly Model 3, all the way to US$160,990 for a decked-out Model X Plaid, so when it comes to average pricing it definitely fits in the luxury vehicle category, leaving EV newcomers like Honda to try and wiggle in from the affordable, low-margin end of the market.