Tesla outsells BMW, Audi and Mercedes' flagships in their home market
There is bound to be a whole cadre of salty German executives after Tesla smokes them at their own game.
If you were a company like Audi , BMW or Mercedes-Benz , makers of some of the world's finest cars, and you found out that your flagship models were outsold in your home country by an electric sedan built in a California city that is basically a parking lot with a mayor, you'd be pretty peeved, right?
Yeah, well that's exactly what happened. While Tesla has outsold ze Germans in the US before, it has never been able to outdo them in their own backyard until now. The reason it was able to do this was likely down to the fact that none of the German three offer a fully electric luxury sedan and as a result, they are leaving the door wide open for the notoriously feisty Tesla.
"This is an alarm for the traditional automakers such as Mercedes. It says a smaller but smarter brand such as Tesla can beat them at home," said Felipe Munoz, an analyst with market researchers JATO Dynamics, in a statement to Automotive News Europe.
The truth is that the Teutonic trio is still not in an ideal position to challenge Tesla at its game. Only Audi has started taking orders for a fully electric e-tron SUV. BMW and Mercedes have remained mum as to their efforts, though we could be in for some surprises with the Geneva motor show on the horizon.
Not that it will actually happen, but it would be hard to imagine a fully electric S-Class as being anything but incredible. Just saying, Dr. Z, just saying.