Tesla’s Success Is Still Highly Controversial

Tesla Model S (Credit: Tesla)

Fortune magazine made a bold declaration not too long ago, saying that the Tesla Model S is the best-selling luxury sedan in America. Not everyone is convinced, with some even accusing Fortune of spin. Funny enough, the magazine has run plenty of negative press on Tesla in the past, and back then it was accused of being the puppet of the oil industry.

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Every time Tesla sees some success, there’s always controversy. This time around, people are splitting hairs by pointing out that the Model S only racked up 25,202 sales, edging out the Mercedes-Benz S-Class by a little over 3,000 units. On top of that, they’re outraged that Fortune would declare the Model S the best-selling luxury sedan in the US, instead of calling it the best-selling full-size luxury sedan in America. Plenty of other luxury sedans snagged more sales in 2015. For example, BMW says the 3 Series snagged over 94,000 sales, while the 4 Series earned over 46,000 and the 5 Series got close with over 44,000 units sold.

What these people are missing is that Tesla has come a long way from its days when people called the Model S “vaporware.” Nobody would have thought that the little automaker could be putting up these kinds of sales figures, especially this fast.

At the same time, the auto industry is a tough crowd to please. While Tesla is finding plenty of homes for the Model S, everything’s not rosy as the moment. The company reported a quarterly cash loss, but thinks the balance will rise in 2016. Bloomberg pointed out that the automaker at one point lost over $12 billion in value.

With the Model 3 reveal coming up in March, expect Tesla stock to start climbing again. Once the vehicle hits the market, it could be posting numbers that dwarf the likes of the BMW 3 Series. It seems that fewer consumers are fearful of electric cars, thanks in large part to Tesla, which will only fuel bigger sales gains. This is why everyone these days seems to have their sights set on creating at least one fully-electric model.