Tesla Model Y replaces world bestseller Toyota Corolla: electric car is the best

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Tesla Model Y: Model sold millions of times

Photo: Bing Guan / Bloomberg / Getty Images

Tesla's compact SUV Model Y is the best-selling car in 2023. The company sold around 1.23 million units of the model last year, according to an analysis of sales figures by market analyst Jato Dynamics. This would mean that sales of the Tesla model would have increased by 64 percent - and for the first time a battery-electric vehicle would be at the top of global car sales for an entire year.

The Tesla SUV replaces the decades-long leader Toyota Corolla, which took third place with 1.01 million vehicles sold - still overtaken by the company's own Toyota RAV 4 SUV, which sold 1.07 million times.

Overall, Toyota remained the world's largest car company with a good 11 million cars, including the Lexus and Daihatsu brands, but unlike Tesla, it was spread across a large number of models, most of which are not fully electric. The compact model Corolla had led the world rankings since 1974, interrupted only four times by the VW Golf (1978, 2000), Ford Escort (1983) and Opel Corsa (1998).

Number one in China and Europe

The Tesla Model Y led the 2023 sales statistics in the world's largest car market, China, with 456,000 vehicles sold, but it also took first place across Europe with more than 255,000 units, ahead of the Dacia Sandero. In Germany, however, the Tesla only achieved eighth place, and in the USA, which is dominated by large pick-ups, it reached fifth place.

Not all countries have published their market data yet, so Jato's analyzes will remain preliminary for a while. However, data from all major sales markets were included in the evaluation.

The manufacturers' own information is only available to a limited extent. Although Tesla adorns itself with the "historic milestone" of becoming number one in Europe with the Model Y, it only announces the sales figures for the Model 3 compact car: According to this, a good 1.8 million Model Y or Model were sold worldwide 3 delivered to customers, as well as almost 70,000 other models. When asked, Tesla did not reveal how many of these were for the Model Y. According to Jato, it was two out of three Teslas last year.

The success of the Model Y may also be due to Tesla's pricing policy: "The average sales price of a Tesla Model Y in November 2023 was 18 percent and 23 percent below the average cost of an electric car in Germany or the USA," explained Jato analyst Felipe Munoz. Tesla started a price war in the industry at the beginning of last year and followed up with further discounts this January. The basic version can currently be ordered in Germany from 41,570 euros.

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