Experian said in its report that BMW had 347,453 new vehicles registered in the U.S. in 2021, while Tesla had 342,412 — a difference of just 5,041 vehicles.
It has been a heated race.
Tesla registrations surged 71 percent over 2020, while BMW’s grew 24 percent year over year, according to Experian. Those numbers suggest that Tesla has significant momentum going into 2022, although semiconductor shortages will likely play an important role in the luxury car race.
Sales and registration numbers don’t track perfectly for a variety of reasons. Vehicles sold in one month can be registered in another, and some registration data may include estimates when exact numbers are unavailable, analysts said. Some industry estimates put Tesla sales higher than BMW for 2021.
“When the numbers are close, it’s hard to declare a winner when you aren’t always comparing apples to apples,” said Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights at Edmunds. Registration data is often useful when analyzing numbers not made public by automakers, such as fleet sales, she said.
