BMW targets 50,000 in U.S. EV sales this year as luxury sales rise

Thanks to growing customer interest, premium-brand sales tallied 676,906 cars and light trucks in the second quarter, up 21 percent and outpacing the broader industry’s 17 percent increase.

Texas-based Tesla, which last year ended BMW’s three-year reign at the top of the luxury segment, outsold its nearest rival by more than 2 to 1 in the first half of this year.

While Tesla does not break out sales by market, the Automotive News Research & Data Center estimates Tesla delivered 173,000 cars and crossovers in the second quarter, rocketing 46 percent higher from a year earlier.

In the first half of the year, Tesla accounted for 26.5 percent of total U.S. luxury sales, up from 21.6 percent in the first half of 2022, according to Automotive News estimates. Tesla is tracking to hit another record year. It sold nearly 70 percent of last year’s total volume in the first six months of 2023.

While Tesla laps BMW, the Munich-based automaker is widening its lead over its Stuttgart-based luxury rival. BMW outsold Mercedes by 10,661 units in the second quarter.

BMW reported 87,948 sales last quarter, up 12 percent. Through the year’s first half, BMW brand sales also rose 12 percent to 170,414 vehicles.

Bugbee said that while the supply shortages of the pandemic era are fading, rising interest rates could tap the brakes on the industry’s momentum. “The interest rate environment has accelerated quite tremendously since the beginning of the year,” he said.

Even so, customer demand “continues to be resilient,” Bugbee said.

The Q3 sales pipeline is “on a stable level with Q2,” he said. “We want to maintain a stock position in the 20 to 25 days supply, and we are right on target for that.”