Tesla sales beating Mercedes, BMW and Audi

I think the article's numbers are wrong. BMW reports Q1 2013 global sales of 7 series as 12,390, not 2,338.

http://www.bmwgroup.com/e/0_0_www_bmwgroup_com/investor_rela...

Sales of the BMW1 Series totalled 53,906 units, almost equalling the previous year’s level (–0.5%). During the quarter ended 31 March 2013 we sold 109,309 units ofthe BMW 3 Series, a jump of 19.9% compared to the previous year. 85,731 BMW 5 Series vehicles were delivered to customers worldwide (+4.3%). Sales of the BMW 6 Series rose sharply to 6,174 units (+32.7%). The BMW 7 Series was handed over to 12,390 customers (–30.3%). The number of BMW Z4 sold fell to 2,982 units (–28.0%).

The sales figures are compared against similarly priced cars by Mercedes, BMW, and Audi. If you looked at total sales of those three companies, they would crush Tesla. I'd imagine Audi is the lowest of the three and they probably sell as many A4's in one or two months as Tesla sells Model S's in a year.

But therein lies the huge growth potential for Tesla. I really doubted Tesla prior to the Model S and through the large investment they took during the bailout periods, but their strategy has proven solid and their execution near-flawless. By creating a high-end sedan, while focusing a lot of effort on making it an amazing car that happens to be electric, vs. appealing solely on its electric drivetrain, they've been able to focus on a market fully willing to take a risk on an unproven product.

Tesla's next challenge will be introducing electric cars to markets more adverse to risk and more sensitive to prices. The Chevy Volt is priced (before tax credits) closer to where the A4, Series 3, and C-class are, but I don't think anyone would compare the driving experience of a Volt to one of those European sedans.

This is the most horrible chart I've ever seen. What scale are those bars at? Why is 4750 more than twice the height of 3077, which is about 4 times the height of 1462? Horribly, horribly misleading. A true graph would show them as a slight increase over the others, but still significantly better.

Not really a fair comparison though. Although they may be in a similar price range as the Tesla, the BMW 7 series and the Audi A8 are not the flagship models for either BMW or Audi. Yet because Tesla only has one model, the S, the comparison is still made.

That being said, if I were in the market for a luxury car in that price range, I'd likely to choose the Tesla today over the other manufacturers.

Horribly misleading headline. What's actually happening is that the Model S is outselling what they've decided is the roughly equivalent models from these companies, not that Tesla is selling more cars of all kinds. Still very good, which makes me wonder why they needed to exaggerate....

Written in a small, gray, pixel font for those who missed it:

"Note: Tesla estimated as Tesla does not provide monthly sales data."

I think part of this is due to the novelty of the car. But also - I think it's just a really good car, assuming an EV fits your lifestyle.

A Mercedes S600 is quite a bit more expensive than a Tesla.

http://autos.yahoo.com/mercedes-benz/s-class/2013/s600/

The comparison is misleading. I'd wager few new MB S sell for $70-80k. A better comparison in performance, price, equipment and size would be the mid-size equivalents, e.g. E-class, 5-series (GT?), A7. It's possible the Model S has sold more than the 5-series GT and A7, but mostly because the market has a hard time understanding hatchbacks.

Tesla actually seems really cheap compared to what novel technology it has.