Tesla Dominating Luxury Sales in USA

krew

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From Forbes:

After Tesla's "historic" quarter - Q3 2018 - where it posted its first profits in 2 years - the American automaker had just 2 profitable quarters in its history, the last one being in 2016 - and outsold Mercedes-Benz (66,542), Audi (59,478), Acura (41,830) and Infiniti (33,079) in America with close to 70,000 vehicles sold, our current sales estimate indicates that Tesla is on track to surpass Lexus (78,622) and BMW (71,679) in the final quarter of this year.

"Although we only sell Model 3, Model S and Model X, our total U.S. deliveries in Q3 were on par with total vehicle deliveries made by our long-established premium competitors, each of which has multiple models and a vast network of dealerships," Tesla CEO Elon Musk said during the carmaker's third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.
 

Gecko

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Yes, but how reliable are all the vehicles behind these number?

Unfortunately, I am not sure it matters very much. The rise of Tesla reminds me of when the iPhone came out and analysts said that nobody really needed or wanted a phone with music on it. The idea seemed crazy. The product was riddled with issues. There were growing pains. However, we know how that turned out.

Even though some of the market is starting to catch up, nobody really offers what Tesla does, and people are willing to put up with reliability woes and unknown factors like depreciation to get what they want. BMW and Mercedes have dabbled with EVs, and done ok, but Tesla is the dominant force here. Personally, I think there is pent up demand for a ToMoCo EV because of their perceived reliability record and batteries still being a somewhat unknown technology. Whether or not they will deliver in time to be relevant is what I'm worried about.

An EV Camry for $35-40k would have been a game changer and probably squashed the Model 3 outright.
 

Ian Schmidt

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FWIW, depreciation is actually becoming well known as Teslas come off lease. And it turns out to be really bad.

But yeah, they need at minimum a PHEV Camry like yesterday.
 
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spwolf

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Unfortunately, I am not sure it matters very much. The rise of Tesla reminds me of when the iPhone came out and analysts said that nobody really needed or wanted a phone with music on it. The idea seemed crazy. The product was riddled with issues. There were growing pains. However, we know how that turned out.

Even though some of the market is starting to catch up, nobody really offers what Tesla does, and people are willing to put up with reliability woes and unknown factors like depreciation to get what they want. BMW and Mercedes have dabbled with EVs, and done ok, but Tesla is the dominant force here. Personally, I think there is pent up demand for a ToMoCo EV because of their perceived reliability record and batteries still being a somewhat unknown technology. Whether or not they will deliver in time to be relevant is what I'm worried about.

An EV Camry for $35-40k would have been a game changer and probably squashed the Model 3 outright.

Apple and Tesla have little in common really, Apple has always delivered top quality product, and sold it at huge profits.

As to the Tesla sales actually affecting luxury brands, they are not.

Overall, U.S. luxury sales fell nearly 3 percent to 158,694 vehicles in October. For the year to date, luxury sales fell 0.5 percent to 1.62 million units.

They are various reasons for this, I would guess a lot of it having to do with Model 3 not being luxurious enough to sway luxury car buyers and that is what makes majority of Tesla sales right now.

None of the traditional brands will start producing large number of EVs before they become profitable similar to traditional vehicles. It does not make any sense for them. That is not to say that they are not investing in R&D, because they are.
 

mmcartalk

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I'm happy for Tesla. Lexus should also jump on the EV bandwagon. Lexus will do well selling EV versions of the ES, GS and LS...


Outside of California, though, which has a widespread recharging network for EVs, keeping them recharged can be a problem, and is preventing their potential sales. For example, where I live, in the VA/DC suburbs, the Governor and legislature are just now getting around to potential state regulations for installing recharge-outlets in condos and condo-townhouses. And most of the folks in this area who DO own Teslas either recharge them at the local Tysons Corner Tesla dealership or are rich/well-heeled and have large homes and garages with outside electrical outlets.
 

Gecko

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Apple and Tesla have little in common really, Apple has always delivered top quality product, and sold it at huge profits.

Not really. When first few generations of iPhone debuted, they were riddled with issues, there was no email, etc. The product has matured over time and is now the leader.

Tesla has a lot of problems and I am not a fan overall, but I think we are past the point where we can write them off as a has-been company that's going to fail.
 

Ian Schmidt

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Not really. When first few generations of iPhone debuted, they were riddled with issues, there was no email, etc.

That's not right. The iPhone had an email client day 1, and it was sufficiently better in real measurable ways than everything else available at the time to have sold well (I know, I was personally very angry at a succession of alleged high-end phones when the iPhone came out). But more importantly, Apple has greatly improved the product in successive software and hardware updates. This is what Silicon Valley is supposed to do for products, and it was a large portion of the early promise of Tesla. However, Tesla's been making cars full-time since 2012 now and they've downgraded the autopilot capability, cheapened the interiors several times, and sunk some of the world's most expensive engineering time into letting you play "Asteroids" with the steering wheel.
 

mikeavelli

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It’s obvious Tesla is offering what people want. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Visually in every city I go to I see Tesla’s. So I can believe these numbers.

They also have a big enthusiast group. Modifying and going to meets etc.

I’ve always liked the Model S....
 

flexus

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Tesla's Model 3 Sales Fall 82% In Norway And 76% In The Netherlands
Apr. 24, 2019 11:14 AM•TSLA
Summary
  • April is off to a horrible start for Tesla in the countries in Europe where we get daily sales (registration) data: Norway and The Netherlands.
  • Compared to March, the daily sales rate in Norway in April thus far is down 82%, and in The Netherlands it’s down 76%.
  • For the more expensive and higher-margin Model S and X, Tesla is losing market share to Audi and Jaguar’s electric cars in the most dramatic of ways.
  • Audi eTron and Jaguar i-Pace are outselling Tesla Model X and S combined by a factor of 5.7 to 1 in Norway, and 9.7 to 1 in The Netherlands.
  • Tesla usually makes up for an April shortfall in the last month of the quarter, but this is a very deep hole from which Tesla now has to dig.

EV enthuasist said after seeing March sales that Tesla would dominate European market. Oh boy they were wrong. Europe doesn't want luxury electric cars but more practical. Tesla is making same mistake as GM and Chrysler. Chrysler sells only Lancia rebadged Voyager in Europe and GM had nothing to offer after selling Saab and Opel. If Model 3 would have been C segment car and S/X D segment sales would have been bigger. Finnish evening newspaper reviewed Model 3 and they stated that while in car wash their 70k car leaked water inside. Build quality and interior were sub standard and only good thing was electric powertrain.
 

spwolf

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Tesla's Model 3 Sales Fall 82% In Norway And 76% In The Netherlands
Apr. 24, 2019 11:14 AM•TSLA
Summary
  • April is off to a horrible start for Tesla in the countries in Europe where we get daily sales (registration) data: Norway and The Netherlands.
  • Compared to March, the daily sales rate in Norway in April thus far is down 82%, and in The Netherlands it’s down 76%.
  • For the more expensive and higher-margin Model S and X, Tesla is losing market share to Audi and Jaguar’s electric cars in the most dramatic of ways.
  • Audi eTron and Jaguar i-Pace are outselling Tesla Model X and S combined by a factor of 5.7 to 1 in Norway, and 9.7 to 1 in The Netherlands.
  • Tesla usually makes up for an April shortfall in the last month of the quarter, but this is a very deep hole from which Tesla now has to dig.

EV enthuasist said after seeing March sales that Tesla would dominate European market. Oh boy they were wrong. Europe doesn't want luxury electric cars but more practical. Tesla is making same mistake as GM and Chrysler. Chrysler sells only Lancia rebadged Voyager in Europe and GM had nothing to offer after selling Saab and Opel. If Model 3 would have been C segment car and S/X D segment sales would have been bigger. Finnish evening newspaper reviewed Model 3 and they stated that while in car wash their 70k car leaked water inside. Build quality and interior were sub standard and only good thing was electric powertrain.


obviously Model 3 had a lot of pentup demand... and they have serious quality issues.

I would still rock one if I was able to service it in my city and there were chargers in my parking space and city. But I cant and there are no chargers on the street.

But did you hear that every new Tesla becomes a robocar and will make owner 30k per year for 10 years and until 1 million miles? Yes, Tesla just announced this, 2 days before their earnings conference call.
 

Will1991

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Tesla continues to kick some butt. Model 3 is soaring..

They have the best combination of performance and efficiency with a good price.
Each time I see a Tesla Model 3 I find myself wondering if waiting for a Toyota/Lexus BEV is the smartest choice...
Hopefully will be a proper BEV and not a compliance car...
 
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They have the best combination of performance and efficiency with a good price.
Each time I see a Tesla Model 3 I find myself wondering if waiting for a Toyota/Lexus BEV is the smartest choice...
Hopefully will be a proper BEV and not a compliance car...

Yes Will, it will (hah pun not intended). The Model 3's have disgusting panel gaps and are riddled with stupid reliability issues. The only Tesla that's actually worth buying and is somewhat good is the Model X.
 

Ian Schmidt

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Tesla's changed sales reporting from "cars sold to consumers" (sell-through) to "cars built" (sell-in) and they've had some weird one-day flash sales recently where you can get a Model S for half price. I'm curious how reliant the cars are on Tesla's servers continuing to exist.
 

suxeL

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Tesla's changed sales reporting from "cars sold to consumers" (sell-through) to "cars built" (sell-in) and they've had some weird one-day flash sales recently where you can get a Model S for half price. I'm curious how reliant the cars are on Tesla's servers continuing to exist.

I`d love more info on that? usually most of the "tips" of getting a deal on a Tesla have been influencers and the such promoting the referral program or picking up a demo model.
 

Ian Schmidt

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Run a regular search for "$TSLAQ" on Twitter, those guys are on top of all the bad and possibly-bad news about Tesla. ("Q" at the end of a stock symbol indicates a defunct company). Yesterday they were quoting a Model 3 owner who was "down with the mission" but had owned the car for 3 months and it was in working, driving condition for 2 days out of that period.
 

Will1991

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Yes Will, it will (hah pun not intended). The Model 3's have disgusting panel gaps and are riddled with stupid reliability issues. The only Tesla that's actually worth buying and is somewhat good is the Model X.

Really good one! ahahah