The fight for the title of the best selling premium brand is on in the US. After two strong quarters for BMW, Lexus is seemingly coming up fast from behind. The Japanese brand managed to beat both BMW and Mercedes-Benz in the third quarter, outselling the German rivals for the first time this year. The fight is still on as we’re entering the last quarter of 2021 but the result will come down to a few units by the end of it all.
Mercedes-Benz seems to have lost the most this year. The Stuttgart-based manufacturer started 2021 on a high, with record numbers being posted in the first quarter. The silver-arrows manufacturer managed to claim the number one spot, beating arch-rival BMW and noticing Lexus in third place. As a matter of fact, Lexus has been breathing down the German competitors’ neck for quite some time now, with Audi already being beaten by the Toyota-owned sub-brand.
The second quarter belonged to BMW. The Bavarian car maker managed to beat Mercedes and Lexus to the punch. That didn’t last long though. The third quarter results are extremely interesting. Lexus climbed on the number one spot, with 81,093 cars delivered to US customers. BMW came in second, with 75,619 units sold while Mercedes-Benz dropped the ball and is now trailing, with 55,130 units.
Therefore, with these results, the year-to-date numbers look very interesting. BMW is still leading right now, but only by 4,808 units in front of… Lexus! Mercedes-Benz is further back, having about 28,000 cars to sell in order to catch up to its German rival. Does that mean German brands are no longer wanted? No, but they have been hit harder than Toyota and Lexus by the microchip shortage. Representatives from both brand confirmed that the dwelling sales have to do with an incapacity of manufacturing, not a drop in demand.
