An American automaker wears the U.S. luxury sales crown for the first time in nearly a quarter century.
After being bested by just 23,244 vehicles in 2021, Tesla grabbed the luxury sales throne from BMW — thumping the German automaker with a 158,612-vehicle lead last year, according to Automotive News Research & Data Center estimates. Austin-based Tesla does not break out sales by region or country. Mercedes-Benz placed third, followed by Lexus, Audi and Cadillac. Tesla delivered an estimated 491,000 vehicles in the U.S. last year, up 48 percent from a revised estimate of 331,000 in 2021, and crossed 1 million deliveries globally.
It's been a swift rise for Tesla from nearly-bankrupt startup to sales juggernaut in a little over a decade.