Tesla's Model Y Is Now Outselling Every Crossover Model At These Major Brands

Tesla's Model Y launched earlier this year. Despite just having come to the American market, the Model Y is already kicking the butts of many well-established leaders in the premium crossover world. And more than a few crossovers in the mainstream sales segment as well. We thought it would be fun to examine which crossovers are being outsold by Tesla's Model Y. You may remember that we did a similar story a while back highlighting which entire automakers' fleets Tesla's Model 3 was outselling.

Related Story: Tesla Outsold Acura, Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche in First Half of 2019 in U.S.

The new battery-electric crossover is smaller than the Model X minivan/crossover model, and nearly identical in many capacities to the top-selling Toyota RAV4. However, the Model Y has been designed to offer an optional third-row of seating. That makes it a bit of a tweener in terms of vehicle categories. Who cares? It's about the size of the RAV4 and Honda CR-V, the two top sellers in the largest automotive category in America. The Model Y doesn't outsell these modes (yet?). But the list of those manufacturers who don't have any crossover that sells as well is long and distinguished.

Related Story: Toyota Delivered More RAV4 Primes In First 9 Weeks Than Tesla Did Model 3, X, or S

Before we begin, our data on vehicle deliveries is courtesy of Good Car Bad Car. Now that Inside EVs has quit tracking EV sales, we will rely on GCBC's data for our Tesla delivery estimates. Tesla doesn't offer by-model breakdowns of its sales in the U.S. market. So GCBC uses VIN reporting and DMV data to break out the info. GCBC says that Tesla has delivered an average of 11,500 Model Y crossovers each month for the past three and that it delivered 11,818 in September. Our comparison to other brands will be for September. We will list out each brand and comment on the sales. Note that many entire brands are outsold by the Model Y.

Here is our listing of brands and models outsold by Telsa's Model Y:
Audi: Tesla's Model Y doesn't just outsell the Q5, it outsells the entire Audi crossover line combined.
Acura: Tesla's Model Y outsells the RDX and MDX combined.
BMW: Tesla's Model Y outsells the X3, X5, and X7 combined.
Buick: The Model Y outsells every Buick crossover individually.
Cadillac: The Tesla Model Y outsells all of Cadillac.
Ford: The Model Y outsells the Edge.
GMC: The Model Y outsells the GMC Terrain.
Hyundai: The Model Y outsells the Hyundai Tucson.
Infiniti: The Model Y outsells all of Infiniti in America.
Jaguar: The Model Y outsells all of Jaguar in America.
Jeep: The Model Y outsells the Jeep Cherokee, Renegade, and Jeep Compass (individually).
Kia: The Model Y outsells the Kia Telluride, Sorento, and Sportage (individually).
Land Rover/Range Rover - Tesla's Model Y outsells all of Land Rover in America.
Lexus: The Tesla Model Y outsells the Lexus UX, NX, and RX lines individually.
Lincoln: The Model Y outsells all of Lincoln.
Mazda: The Model Y outsells the Mazda CX-9 and CX-30, and CX-3 combined.
Mercedes Benz: Tesla's Model Y outsells every model at Mercedes individually.
Mitsubishi: Tesla's Model Y outsells all of Mitsubishi.
Nissan: Tesla's Model Y outsells the Murano and Pathfinder individually.
Porsche: Tesla's Model Y outsells all of Porsche.
Volkswagen: The Model Y outsells the Atlas and Tiguan individually.
Volvo: Tesla's Model Y outsells all of Volvo.

That is our list, again based on data provided by GCBC which you can view yourself at the site's listings of U.S.-market vehicle sales by Model.

It was easy to discount the success of Tesla's Model 3, which continues, by the way. We all know sedans are a dying segment and the Model 3 was the only obtainable performance electric vehicle. Now that the Model Y is eating at the very heart of most automakers' profits maybe it is time to read the writing on the wall. Shoppers want great green vehicles.

So which models still outsell the Model Y? The CR-V, Rogue, Forester, Escape, Outback, RAV4, and arguably the RAV4 Hybrid and Prime trims combined if you pull them out of the RAV4's total volume. Also, the Jeep Grand Cherokee (to our surprise).

Honda, Kia, Hyundai, Ford, Mitsubishi, and Volkswagen have all announced new crossovers the size of the Model Y for 2021 equipped with a plug. Only Toyota and Mitsubishi beat Tesla to market with green crossovers in the most popular size category.

John Goreham is a life-long car nut and recovering engineer. John's focus areas are technology, safety, and green vehicles. In the 1990s, he was part of a team that built a solar-electric vehicle from scratch. His was the role of battery thermal control designer. For 20 years he applied his engineering and sales talents in the high tech world and automotive supply chain market. In 2008 he retired from that career to chase his dream of being an auto writer. In addition to Torque News, John's work has appeared in print in dozens of American newspapers and he provides reviews to many vehicle shopping sites. You can follow John on Twitter, and view his credentials at Linkedin

Image credits can be seen by hovering one's mouse over the images in the story.