Golden State drivers must love their electric cars because
Tesla's Model S outsold luxury brands like Porsche, Jaguar, and Land Rover in California during the first half of the year.
According to the California New Car Dealers Association, Tesla topped the charts with 4,714 new cars registered over the last six months. That trumps Porsche (4,586), Land Rover (4,022), Volvo (2,982), and other popular models like the Lexus GS (2,298) and the Audi A6 (1,619).
Not bad for a brand that sold just
14 cars in California over the same period last year, according to CNBC.
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Tesla's rank is impressive considering the price tag for the electric car — it ranges from $60,000 to upwards of $100,000 — and the constraints — it can only be fueled from an electric plug and has no backup gas engine.
The Model S was recently awarded the title of safest car ever, with a 5.4 rating.
"Approximately 1 percent of all cars tested by the federal government
achieve five stars across the board," Tesla said on its website. "NHTSA does not publish a star rating above five, however safety levels better than five stars are captured in the overall Vehicle Safety Score (VSS) provided to manufacturers, where the Model S achieved a new combined record of 5.4 stars."
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Experts say Tesla has the capacity to break out of its niche — right now it only offers the electric Model S and the upcoming Model X Crossover — and become a real force in the general automotive industry.
"Tesla's the Apple of automotive — it’s managed to cross the automotive and technology fields to become this hot commodity," Alan Baum, an independent auto analyst at Baum & Associates in West Bloomfield, Mich., told Bloomberg. "Justified or not, the expectations for this company are now very high."
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