Hacker News Reader

Comment by lexs | Hacker News Reader

According to official statistics [0] the Golf is still selling more than twice as many units per month and the ID3 is selling 50% more than the Model 3. The Model 3 is more comparable to the BMW i3 numbers wise.

[0] https://www.kba.de/DE/Statistik/Fahrzeuge/Neuzulassungen/Mon...

View on HN

That are the numbers of October. Tesla doesn't sell many cars in Europe in October, as they are always produced at the quarter start, then shipped and sold towards the quarter end. This also means, that the September numbers, where the Model 3 did almost beat the Golf, are inflated. The truth is somewhere in the middle.

So, even if the Model 3 isn't quite beating the Golf yet, it is coming closer. This will even be more the case, once Tesla produced in Europe, as there are no import taxes on the vehicle and the prices lower.

According to that table, VW had 9 models among the top 50 whereas Tesla only had 1 (the Model 3), and all but one of VW's 9 most popular models outsold the Model 3 so far this year (January to October). The Golf alone sold over 3x as many units as the Model 3.

So while Tesla is quickly gaining market share, VW is still selling 10x as many cars in Germany.

No one doubts that VW is producing a higher car count then Tesla. Currently about 10x. But the point is, the Golf used to be the most popular car in Germany, so if Tesla, even shortly, can approach that number, it is a huge milestone. Especially, as the second Tesla model for the mass market, the Model Y, just entered the German market and promises to sell even better than the Model 3.

There was a claim above that companies like VW...

> are very afraid of the implosion of their market share as those others are saturating the market with EVs. That's not a future thing; it's already happening.

I think that's more than a bit overstated.

According to this, the model 3 almost beat the Golf last month: https://cleantechnica.com/2021/10/15/tesla-model-3-reaches-1...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com