Last year, Tesla’s global car sales exceeded that of a luxury automaker for the first time, but the company’s deliveries also fell slightly from a year earlier.
Volkswagen’s luxury automaker Audi released its global sales numbers this week, with Tesla surpassing the German company on the global leaderboard for the first time ever, Bloomberg reported. Tesla announced it sold 1.79 million vehicles, down about 1.1%, while Audi announced it sold just 1.67 million vehicles worldwide, down 12% year over year.
The news marks the first time Tesla has outperformed the automaker across global markets and comes as the German automaker struggles to meet demand for its vehicles amid a shift to electric models. Ta. Audi’s sales in particular declined in Germany, China and North America, with battery-electric deliveries down about 8% to about 164,000 vehicles.
Credit: Bloomberg (data from company statement)
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As you can see, 2024 was also the first year that Audi did not see a sales increase over the past few years, with the company selling around 1.9 million units in 2023.
In the U.S. alone, Audi sold 23,152 cars, followed by Tesla, the overwhelming market leader with 633,000 cars, General Motors (114,432), Ford (97,865), Hyundai (61,797) and BMW. (50,981), and a few more. Audi outperformed parent company Volkswagen in the U.S., with fellow German automaker recording 18,183 deliveries in Tesla’s home market.
Audi also announced plans to close its Brussels plant in Belgium. This is mainly due to low demand for the Q8 e-tron electric SUV that the company is currently producing there.
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