Tesla Model S was Third Best Selling Luxury Vehicle in California for 1Q 2013

[gaswalla]

I hadn't seen this mentioned in the forums yet.

The California New Car Dealers Association has their quarterly report out, and lists the Model S just behind the Mercedes E-class and BMW 5 series for sales in California.

Interesting to see the Tesla ahead of the Audi A6 and Lexus GS and hanging in there with the big boys in its first full quarter of full production.

(also, note the irony of getting this info from a dealers association)

it's on page 2: http://www.cncda.org/publications/Cal_Covering_1Q_13.pdf

 

[archibaldcrane]

Wow. It outsold the Mustang in California.

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[DaveT]

Very interesting. Over half of all electric vehicle registrations in California for the 1st quarter were Tesla Model S's.

 

[CapitalistOppressor]

I hadn't seen this mentioned in the forums yet.

The California New Car Dealers Association has their quarterly report out, and lists the Model S just behind the Mercedes E-class and BMW 5 series for sales in California.

Interesting to see the Tesla ahead of the Audi A6 and Lexus GS and hanging in there with the big boys in its first full quarter of full production.

(also, note the irony of getting this info from a dealers association)

it's on page 2: http://www.cncda.org/publications/Cal_Covering_1Q_13.pdf

It was linked somewhere in one of the threads on here. Whats really interesting isn't that it was the top selling vehicle in North America in its class in Q1 (it utterly clobbered the competition) but that in California it came close to upending the leaders in the class below it. If the Model S replicated those numbers across the nation that would be stunning.

The 5 Series sold ~57k cars in the U.S. last year and probably had a median sale price in the $56 range. In purely economic terms the entry level Model S has a better TCO than a 5 Series, so its not absurd to think of it having similar sales numbers despite its size and retail price being more comparable to a 6 or 7 Series. That is completely aside from the fact that the Model S is just a superior car, which substantially enhances it as a value proposition.

Right now its uncertain whether the Model S can keep up the momentum now that their U.S. waiting list is all but exhausted, but all the evidence shows them still delivering ~400/cars/week, and roughly half of those are likely still in California. If they manage to keep on keeping on, this could end up being a really special year for them.

 

[richkae]

This data is so much fun.

Tesla outsold Buick, Fiat, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mitsubishi, Porsche and Volvo in the 1st quarter.

Tesla sold almost 1% of the cars in California in the first quarter.
If the rest of the country followed California's lead - Tesla could/would sell more than 100,000 Model S in the US this year.

 

[jive_devil]

Let's not get too ahead of ourselves. For most automakers, the sales figures are more reflective of demand for the product, as opposed to production capacity. For Tesla, it's almost the reverse since they have had several quarters of pent up demand (back orders) to fulfill. So in some sense, you're seeing multiple quarters of demand in one quarter.

Don't get me wrong, I obviously love what Tesla is doing . . .

 

[Eberhard]

Let's not get too ahead of ourselves. For most automakers, the sales figures are more reflective of demand for the product, as opposed to production capacity. For Tesla, it's almost the reverse since they have had several quarters of pent up demand (back orders) to fulfill. So in some sense, you're seeing multiple quarters of demand in one quarter.

Don't get me wrong, I obviously love what Tesla is doing . . .

but looks like they are still afraid to name Tesla as a brand despite the fact its already selling more cars like Porsche

 

[djp]

I'd love to see this data ranked by cash sales (volume x avg sale price) rather than just volume. Looking at the dollars would make the message even stronger.

 

[richkae]

Let's not get too ahead of ourselves. For most automakers, the sales figures are more reflective of demand for the product, as opposed to production capacity. For Tesla, it's almost the reverse since they have had several quarters of pent up demand (back orders) to fulfill. So in some sense, you're seeing multiple quarters of demand in one quarter.

Don't get me wrong, I obviously love what Tesla is doing . . .

This cuts both ways. I know several people who are now seriously looking at buying a Tesla now that they have shipped thousands of vehicles without issue. They never would have put down a deposit on a car that wasn't yet shipping. Other people are likely waiting for Tesla to ride out their first year. Many more are only now learning about them because of all the free press.

 

[derekt75]

I hadn't seen this mentioned in the forums yet.

The California New Car Dealers Association has their quarterly report out, and lists the Model S just behind the Mercedes E-class and BMW 5 series for sales in California.

Interesting to see the Tesla ahead of the Audi A6 and Lexus GS and hanging in there with the big boys in its first full quarter of full production.

(also, note the irony of getting this info from a dealers association)

it's on page 2: http://www.cncda.org/publications/Cal_Covering_1Q_13.pdf

2400 in California means that about half of Model S sales are in California.
Since the grid in CA emits about half as much CO2 per kWh as the country, I wonder if the haters will start changing their numbers for how much pollution Model S causes.

yeah right.

 

[EarlyAdopter]

2400 in California means that about half of Model S sales are in California.
Since the grid in CA emits about half as much CO2 per kWh as the country, I wonder if the haters will start changing their numbers for how much pollution Model S causes.

yeah right.

And the second largest number of Model S sales are in WA state where 96% of our power comes from renewables, mainly hydroelectric. It's true, it rains a lot here. And it powers my car. I love it.

 

[Seattle]

And the second largest number of Model S sales are in WA state where 96% of our power comes from renewables, mainly hydroelectric. It's true, it rains a lot here. And it powers my car. I love it.

And please don't move here, anyone. Move to Oregon, they are much nicer.

 

[brianman]

And please don't move here, anyone. Move to Oregon, they are much nicer.

Yah, it's awful here. Any other state is better.

This message brought to you by the Traffic Council of the Greater Seattle Area.

 

[richkae]

Here is the corresponding report for Washington State: http://www.wsada.org/media/docs/Washington%20Covering%201Q%2013.pdf
Unfortunately there is no Tesla number in there, only an "other" - but Tesla is probably all of the increase in "other" from 2012 to 2013 so that would be 243 vehicles in Q1.
That puts them ahead of Buick, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Volvo and essentially tied with Fiat.
Very similar to California.
If anybody knows where to get real counts of Teslas registered in Washington State that would be interesting.

 

[CapitalistOppressor]

Here is the corresponding report for Washington State: http://www.wsada.org/media/docs/Washington%20Covering%201Q%2013.pdf
Unfortunately there is no Tesla number in there, only an "other" - but Tesla is probably all of the increase in "other" from 2012 to 2013 so that would be 243 vehicles in Q1.
That puts them ahead of Buick, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Volvo and essentially tied with Fiat.
Very similar to California.
If anybody knows where to get real counts of Teslas registered in Washington State that would be interesting.

That might be a reasonable guess. It shows 430 EV sales through February compared to 917 EV's for all of 2012, and 980 for all of 2011. Looking at the graph, Hybrids sales are flat, and EV sales are up ~200%. A big part of that must be Tesla.

More important however, is that the March data throughout the report is estimated. So it's really hard to know how accurate the "other" number even is since I doubt their methodology is robust when it comes to tracking Tesla. Especially since they omitted March EV numbers completely.

But both bins, "other" and "EV" are showing major growth, and much of that is certainly Tesla.