Tesla makes history again. The market-leading electric vehicle brand, with more than 1.81 million deliveries in 2023, has managed to place one of its models as the best-selling car in the world. The Tesla Model Y, with more than 1.23 million units, led the annual sales ranking in 2023, according to preliminary data collected by the consulting firm Jato Dynamic, becoming the first 100% electric car to achieve this recognition.
In the absence of scrutinizing “a small number of markets” that will not alter the leadership of the Tesla Model Y over two Toyota models, the RAV4 (1.07 million units) and the Corolla (1.01 million units), the car of the company led by Elon Musk achieves a historic milestone by breaking the hegemony that until now had been maintained by cars equipped with traditional and hybrid engines, dominated by Toyota.
For the first time, a pure electric car reaches first place on the list of the best-selling cars in the world, according to data from Jato Dynamics, and it does so after conquering the European market. The sales success of the Tesla Model Y is confirmed by its leadership for the first time in the Old Continent, also becoming the first non-European manufacturer to finish the year in first place since there is reliable global data.
Also in Europe, it is the first time that a 100% electric model is the most popular car, with 255,000 copies, surpassing the Dacia Sandero – sales leader in Spain in 2023 – by around 19,000 units, and other models with high sales volume such as the Peugeot 208 and the Volkswagen T-Roc.
The ‘surpass’ of the Tesla Model Y as the best-selling car in the world comes hand in hand with a 64% growth in deliveries compared to the previous year and Musk’s decision to lower the price of his cars. According to Jato Dynamic sources collected by Europa Press, the price of Tesla vehicles is 18% and 23% lower than the average cost of vehicles with this engine in Germany and the United States, respectively. “As a result, Tesla is on the minds of many consumers looking to purchase an electric vehicle.”
Tesla increased its deliveries in China by 45% in 2023, with about 456,000 units, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). In addition, data provided by the American company shows that the Model Y accounted for two out of every three Tesla deliveries worldwide, which reached global sales of more than 1.8 million vehicles in 2023.
Even so, Elon Musk does not hide his disappointment at the little weight that Tesla has in Japan, one of the countries in the world where the most cars are purchased. “There are some geographies where our market share is notably low, like Japan,” he said Wednesday on a conference call to announce fourth-quarter 2023 results.
“We should at least have a market share proportional to other non-Japanese car manufacturers such as Mercedes or BBW, which we currently do not have,” added Musk at an event in which he announced that in June 2025 Tesla will begin manufacturing an electric model. ‘low cost’.
