Musk’s Tesla overtakes Mercedes-Benz as 2nd largest seller of imported cars in March

SEOUL — Elon Musk-run Tesla overtook Mercedes-Benz as the second-largest seller of imported vehicles in South Korea last month, industry data showed on Wednesday.

The number of newly registered imported cars came to 25,263 units in March, up 6 per cent from 23,840 units a year ago, the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association said in a statement.

Of those, BMW accounted for 6,549 units, followed by Tesla and Mercedes-Benz, with 6,025 units and 4,197 units, respectively, reports Yonhap News Agency.

It marked the first time for Tesla to beat Mercedes-Benz in South Korea in terms of sales. Lexus and Volvo came in fourth and fifth, selling 1,218 units and 1,081 units, respectively.

Industry watchers attributed Tesla’s strong advance in sales to the confirmation of government EV subsidies last month. Also, Mercedes-Benz saw a significant decrease in registrations due to delivery delays caused by political tensions in the Middle East.

In terms of individual models, Tesla’s Model Y was the bestselling car, selling 5,934 units, followed by the BMW 5 and the Lexus ES, with 2,259 units and 822 units, respectively.

Meanwhile, Tesla has released its first quarter (Q1) of 2024 delivery and production results.

In Q1, the company said it produced over 433,000 vehicles and delivered approximately 387,000 vehicles. It deployed 4,053 MWh (megawatt-hour) of energy storage products in the first quarter, the highest quarterly deployment yet.