I noticed an interesting sales comparison on the Tesla Motors Club forum today (thanks, RobStark). It was a table showing 2014 sales data for the top large luxury cars in the USA… minus Tesla, since Tesla doesn’t report its sales (read: deliveries). Rob noted an estimate for Tesla, which was pulled from the table source, Good Car Bad Car. However, based on my very well informed estimate of USA Tesla Model S deliveries in 2014, let me first point out that I think the Good Car Bad Car estimate (which it got from elsewhere) is a couple thousand short.
Anyhow, I threw my Tesla estimate into a new table and also created some charts for 2014 and 2013, which you can view here:
| Large Luxury Car Models | 2014 | 2013 | % Change |
| Mercedes-Benz S-Class | 25,276 | 13,303 | 90.00% |
| Tesla Model S | 18,480 | 15,585 | 18.58% |
| BMW 7-Series | 9,744 | 10,932 | -10.87% |
| BMW 6-Series | 8,647 | 9,762 | -11.42% |
| Lexus LS | 8,559 | 10,727 | -20.21% |
| Audi A7 | 8,133 | 8,483 | -4.13% |
| Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class | 6,981 | 8,032 | -13.09% |
| Audi A8 | 5,904 | 6,300 | -6.29% |
| Porsche Panamera | 5,740 | 5,421 | 5.88% |
| Jaguar XJ | 4,329 | 5,434 | -20.33% |
| Total | 83,313 | 78,394 | 6.27% |
Aside from the obvious, one important point to note are: Tesla is supply-limited, so we have no idea how many cars it would have sold in the US in 2014 if it were not. Also, as Elon noted on the recent quarterly conference call for Tesla, 1,400 deliveries slipped from 2014 to 2015 due to severe weather, buyers being out of town on holiday, shipping issues (with ships), and other factors.
Still, the Model S was a clear second, and deliveries increased 18.6% year over year. Pretty cool. And certainly not bad for a company that isn’t even a teenager yet.
Now, if this newbie can dominate such a refined segment of the market in such a short time, imagine what it can do in the SUV/CUV and affordable car categories once it launches vehicles there! Well, we don’t have too long to find out. The Model X is coming out this year, and the Model 3 should be coming out in just 2–3 years.
Why did the S-Class sell so many more this year? That is a head scratcher.
No idea, really. Just that it’s widely considered the most luxurious car on the market. But not clear on why it would see a big jump.
It is because the new S-Class came out so everybody that wanted to buy one the year before just waited one year. And lots of old models that stood around at the dealers were sold cheaper.
Thanks. That explains things.
It’s fun to imagine that Tesla production cannibalized all of the negative growth of the other luxury automakers as well as some growth of the others.