Lexus Outsells Mercedes and BMW

Lexus Outsells Mercedes and BMW. The Lexus brand of Toyota Motor Corp. outsell of luxury rivals Mercedes and BMW in the last quarter as inventory shortages caused by the pandemic hampered German brands.

Lexus, which hasn't won the annual luxury sales race in the United States for a decade, grew 2% on the year to 75,285 vehicles in the third quarter. Deliveries of Daimler AG's premium range fell 9.4% to 69,631 units, and BMW AG suffered a 16% drop to 69,570. Mercedes continues to lead the other two automakers so far this year by a wide margin.

Lexus Outsells Mercedes and BMW

Lexus weathered the pandemic better than its German rivals, and the brand's best-selling RX SUV saw strong demand during the quarter. Mercedes and BMW have been crippled by low inventories as the pandemic closed factories in Europe and the United States for weeks. Lexus saw a 31% increase in September alone, led by its RX, NX crossover and ES sedan. This reduced the declines this year to 13%.

“Used BMW sales have been very strong; I think it's consuming demand for new cars due to inventory shortages,” said Marc Cohen, vice president of Priority 1 Automotive Group in Maryland, which operates two BMW stores.

BMW dealers have adapted by selling vehicles that had yet to hit the market to customers and with a skyrocketing increase in rental vehicle sales. After facing a tight inventory in July and August, BMW had a record month in September when it replenished its vehicle supply, said Bernhard Kuhnt, president of BMW's North American division.

“In September, we had what I would call better inventory levels for the first time,” Kuhnt said over the phone. "For the rest of the year, I'm cautiously optimistic, but certainly a lot more optimistic than I was in March."

Lexus has overtaken BMW for second place selling for the year to date by 2,105 units, but Mercedes has sold a total of 196,838, an advantage of nearly 15,000 vehicles over Lexus.

As BMW's ratio of sport utility vehicles to sedans rose to 62.5% in the third quarter, led by the X3 crossover, Mercedes has a new compact SUV, the GLB and other revamped SUVs to take advantage of the move. Americans. sedans to light trucks.

BMW also had to contend with other headwinds. Last month, the company agreed to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission $ 18 million to resolve allegations it gave investors misleading information about retail sales. In August, the automaker cut its white-collar workforce in the United States to align costs with declining sales.

The collapse in the rental car market also affected results this year, so BMW turned to retail sales growth, Kuhnt said. “You see, in the fourth quarter, regardless of the outcome, we grew our customer business,” he said.

U.S. deliveries from Audi, a unit of Volkswagen AG, fell 22% in 2020, following a 16% drop from July to September. Its best-selling Q5 SUV suffered a 34% drop in the quarter.