Why Are Luxury Brands Struggling to Sell This Year?
While many luxury brands are selling a fraction of what they sold in 2021, Tesla managed to increase sales
Written by Allison Stone
Reviewed by Kathleen Flear
Across the board,
new car sales
have declined as manufacturers struggle to keep up with demand. Luxury cars
in particular seem to be suffering from low sales according to a new report from goodcarbarcar.net
, an automotive sales data and statistics site. Luxury brands like Acura, Lexus, and Volvo have all seen a staggering drop in year-to-date (YTD) sales, but why? Read on with the car ownership experts at
Jerry
as we discuss why some brands could be struggling to sell. Which luxury brands had a drop in sales?
According to the goodcarbadcar.net report, Tesla was one of the few luxury brands to see a significant increase in quarterly sales numbers from this time last year, jumping from 73,301 units in 2021 to 118,700 in 2022 for Q2.
Cadillac also saw a notable sales jump from 23,858 units in Q2 of 2021 to 33,684 in Q2 of 2022.
Genesis, Porsche, Lincoln, and Mercedes-Benz also saw a slight increase in units sold in a comparison of the same time period, but each brand sold less than 10,000 more than the year prior.
Of the remaining premium brands, Acura, Alfa Romeo, Audi, BMW, Infiniti, Jaguar, Lexus, and Volvo all saw a drop in sales.
Acura suffered the most dramatic drop off of all, going from 50,496 units in Q2 of 2021 to just 17,032 units sold in Q2 of 2022. In YTD sales, the brand is at about half (51,341 units) of the sales it achieved last year (103,234 units).
Why some brands are struggling while Tesla thrives
It’s not unlike Tesla to go against the grain, and in many ways, it's not surprising that the once-niche EV automaker is outselling its luxury competitors.
Tesla has near total market control of electric car sales in the U.S., but it managed to make its way to the top of luxury car sales lists as well. The brand’s most affordable unit, the Model 3, is the
best-selling EV of all time
. One factor to consider is that while many brands are reallocating resources toward building out EV manufacturing facilities, Tesla is way ahead of the game.
And while frustrating microchip shortages, supply chain delays, and
labor shutdowns
are impacting all automakers, Tesla’s vertical integration strategy has given it a bit of a competitive edge over other manufacturers that outsource much more of the production process. CEO Elon Musk himself has said that Tesla’s biggest growth challenge isn’t other automakers, but supply chain shortages. Regardless, the brand seems to be rolling with the punches much better than others.
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