California may not be home for Tesla anymore, but it remains an important market for the world's biggest electric car maker. Tesla recorded impressive car sales in California in 2021, making the state still its biggest market in the United States, as per Electrek.
It was pure domination by Tesla, which had two of the top 5 best-selling vehicles in California last year, according to data from the California New Car Dealer Association (CNCDA). The data showed Tesla Model Y having a breakout year in 2021, recording 60,394 sales to become the best-selling compact SUV in the state.
Such was the Model Y's popularity in California that it nearly beat the much cheaper Toyota Camry for the best-selling car in the state in 2021. The Toyota Camry sold 61,599 units in California last year, only 1,205 more than Model Y's sales output.
Tesla Model 3 also performed well with its sales in California, finishing fifth overall with 53,572 units sold last year, reported INSIDEEvs With the Model Y and the Model 3 racking up high sales numbers for Tesla, that made it two electric vehicles in the top five best-selling cars in California in 2021. That is a welcome sign not only for Tesla but for other automakers, who are ramping up their electrification plans in the United States.
Tesla's sales in California increased by 69 percent in 2021, the largest growth by any automaker except for Genesis. However, Genesis had extremely low volumes in 2020, thus artificially boosting its growth percentage in the state last year.
Tesla helped California achieve a 9.5 percent BEV market share, recording more than half of all BEV sales in the state last year. That growth for the EV market is expected to accelerate in the coming years, with more options available for buyers to choose from regarding electric vehicles, including electric pickup trucks.
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California consumers showed last year that if a compelling high volume EV is available, they will buy that particular product. That was particularly true for Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y, which dominated their respective car segments in California.
Tesla Model 3 owned an impressive 47 percent market share in the near-luxury segment in the state, way ahead of the second-ranked BMW 3-Series, which had a 10.8 percent share. TeslaRati reported that Tesla Model Y also dominated the luxury compact SUV segment in California, recording a 43.8 percent share last year. That was almost five times the sales of second-ranked Lexus NX, which managed to nab just an 8.8 percent share in that segment.
Model X and Model S failed to reach the heights of Model 3 and Model Y last year, with their sales affected by having no deliveries in the first half of the year due to Tesla making a design refresh.
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