Best Selling UK Car June 21

[Mr Miserable]

As predicted on the shipping thread, Tesla achieved the No 1 spot in June "The UK's best selling car" with the Model 3.
Note that is best selling car , outselling diesel, petrol and hybrid models.
It sold 5468 cars putting the VW Golf into 2nd place.
Quite an achievement and a title Tesla were really gunning for by holding over stock from May for delivery during June.
The press release points out the problems of vehicle supply at the moment because of the semiconductor issue and Covid effects but does not explain how these issues do not seem to have affected Tesla.
Next month however we can expect the headlines will be 'Tesla sales slump".
I expect another push in September but that will be a much more difficult challenge to get into the top five.

 

[Mark-R]

Good to see a BEV take top spot (albeit due to Tesla's quarterly supply spike), but disappointing to see MHEVs have jumped ahead of BEVs (comparing 2020 to 2021). Looks like people are finding it really difficult to wean themselves off petrol and diesel...

 

[Mrklaw]

10% BEV and 17% BEV/PHEV seems pretty good

 

[Peter 224]

Were Tesla really holding over to push June deliveries?
I ordered my M3 LR on 9 May and took delivery on 22nd, even though I'd been quoted June for delivery.

 

[Jason71]

Lets hope they will also set records in supercharger and service centre opening as well then!

 

[Ceih]

Were Tesla really holding over to push June deliveries?
I ordered my M3 LR on 9 May and took delivery on 22nd, even though I'd been quoted June for delivery.

I don't think specifically, it just happened they had a boat arriving late May that ended up with deliveries in June. The boat that arrived earlier didn't keep its cars back for June. June was essentially a "perfect storm" of a boat load of SR+/LRs that arrived right at the start and then the long awaited Ps that have been six months or longer on order arriving in the middle of June.

Simply put, June is just a flash in the pan of high numbers - as borne out by the fact Tesla doesn't make it in to the top ten cars sold for the year to date.

With no SR+ deliveries in to the UK until November I'd expect the next five months of delivery numbers to be significantly lower...

 

[Artiste]

Simply put, June is just a flash in the pan of high numbers - as borne out by the fact Tesla doesn't make it in to the top ten cars sold for the year to date.

Exactly. The figures are basically meaningless. The high June figure is achieved simply because of Tesla’s rather strange delivery process and the now standard end of quarter drive - a drive that is known to impact negatively on already questionable quality control. I’ll be impressed if Tesla achieve a top ten finish at the end of the year but the June figures in isolation are, frankly, irrelevant.

 

[Mr Miserable]

Exactly. The figures are basically meaningless. The high June figure is achieved simply because of Tesla’s rather strange delivery process and the now standard end of quarter drive - a drive that is known to impact negatively on already questionable quality control. I’ll be impressed if Tesla achieve a top ten finish at the end of the year but the June figures in isolation are, frankly, irrelevant.

I think the quality control issues have improved beyond recognition since the cars have been supplied from China.
Whilst I agree the end of quarter push is not conducive to good PDIs, I don't think we saw a trademark end-of-quarter frenzy last month - the increased number of delivery centres and the early arrival of the ships made it a much more civilised affair.
There is however little to no chance of Tesla achieving a top ten finish at the end of the year.
What it can achieve are little victories like outselling the ID3 in March and big victories like becoming the best selling car overall in June.
It's quite an achievement for any manufacturer nevermind a market disrupting EV manufacturer. There was no discounting or pre-reg shenanigans either. It's not just a UK thing either, in France the Model 3 outsold the native Zoe and in Norway it was the top EV too.
Additionally it must really grate the SMMT that a non-member of the organisation took first place in their figures.

 

[Mrklaw]

I don't think specifically, it just happened they had a boat arriving late May that ended up with deliveries in June. The boat that arrived earlier didn't keep its cars back for June. June was essentially a "perfect storm" of a boat load of SR+/LRs that arrived right at the start and then the long awaited Ps that have been six months or longer on order arriving in the middle of June.

Simply put, June is just a flash in the pan of high numbers - as borne out by the fact Tesla doesn't make it in to the top ten cars sold for the year to date.

With no SR+ deliveries in to the UK until November I'd expect the next five months of delivery numbers to be significantly lower...

What do you mean no SR+ until November!?

 

[Llama.]

What do you mean no SR+ until November!?

Yup, that’s right. Go into the Tesla Website and it says November for the SR+

So this makes the M3 LR and P (est delivery of August) the only Tesla cars you can buy in the U.K. right now.

I’m sure this will be affecting used prices.

 

[Womble74]

Myself, and others, were ordering SR+'s upto a week or so ago with the Tesla site itself quoting a delivery date of August.

So my view, would be that they've sold out of that "stock" and it won't be until November that it's restocked.

Going by the shipping thread, and others - we're expecting the next ship in Shaingai to be loading up with SR+'s. Finger's crossed that it's the GLOVIS....

 

[MrT3]

So my view, would be that they've sold out of that "stock" and it won't be until November that it's restocked.

I agree. They have simply sold out of this quarter's quota so they are now taking orders for the next quarter. I would say that the number of SR+ models will probably be on the low side this quarter; given that demand outstrips supply it makes sense that Tesla constrain the model that makes them the least money, and the SR+ seems to be constrained across Europe so maybe they are switching production to European Model Y vehicles.

 

[Jason71]

Myself, and others, were ordering SR+'s upto a week or so ago with the Tesla site itself quoting a delivery date of August.

So my view, would be that they've sold out of that "stock" and it won't be until November that it's restocked.

Going by the shipping thread, and others - we're expecting the next ship in Shaingai to be loading up with SR+'s. Finger's crossed that it's the GLOVIS....

The cars for August are not built yet so there is no stock. A cynic would suggest they think they will be able to sell all the cars they can build so why not make them the ones with the most profit. It's what any well run business would do to be fair

 

[Mrklaw]

I agree. They have simply sold out of this quarter's quota so they are now taking orders for the next quarter. I would say that the number of SR+ models will probably be on the low side this quarter; given that demand outstrips supply it makes sense that Tesla constrain the model that makes them the least money, and the SR+ seems to be constrained across Europe so maybe they are switching production to European Model Y vehicles.

November is next-next quarter. We’re barely in July so I’d be expecting them to sell through spillover Q2 stock from June. Even if they go quarterly like Q2 you’d be looking at September delivery. November is very late

 

[Artiste]

I think the quality control issues have improved beyond recognition since the cars have been supplied from China.
Whilst I agree the end of quarter push is not conducive to good PDIs, I don't think we saw a trademark end-of-quarter frenzy last month - the increased number of delivery centres and the early arrival of the ships made it a much more civilised affair.
There is however little to no chance of Tesla achieving a top ten finish at the end of the year.
What it can achieve are little victories like outselling the ID3 in March and big victories like becoming the best selling car overall in June.
It's quite an achievement for any manufacturer nevermind a market disrupting EV manufacturer. There was no discounting or pre-reg shenanigans either. It's not just a UK thing either, in France the Model 3 outsold the native Zoe and in Norway it was the top EV too.
Additionally it must really grate the SMMT that a non-member of the organisation took first place in their figures.

Yes, I agree that there’s not nearly as much an issue of end of quarter push with MIC cars. However, I still think the monthly sales figures are completely irrelevant. There’s not much point in people applauding the high June sales figures when they are purely the product of Tesla’s strange shipping and delivery method. In the same way there’s not much point in Tesla detractors crowing about the inevitable collapse in sales next month, which is merely the result of the same process. End of year sales figures are the ones that matter and will provide a realistic picture.

 

[Jason71]

November is next-next quarter. We’re barely in July so I’d be expecting them to sell through spillover Q2 stock from June. Even if they go quarterly like Q2 you’d be looking at September delivery. November is very late

They have clearly sold everything for the next quarter (July/August/September. There are never any ships arrive in the first month of the quarter ( October) ergo November and probably late November at that.

 

[Dunstan]

The cars for August are not built yet so there is no stock. A cynic would suggest they think they will be able to sell all the cars they can build so why not make them the ones with the most profit. It's what any well run business would do to be fair

I don't think it's cynical at all. If, for example, their output is constrained by shortage of chips then that contrained output would focus on higher margin products. A company expanding as fast as Tesla will hit all sorts of bumps in the road even without pandemic related supply chain disruptions: maximising the margin when riding over these bumps is self preservation.