They sold 21,934 in the S class, so less than Tesla:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mercedes-benz-usa-re...

Your figures include vans etc.

Benz makes over 50 distinct models, BMW over 40. Tesla has 2 or 3 models and can focus all its attention and expenses on one big thing. It's a classic fast-moving competitor upsetting the dinosaur uber-brands with their huge legacy factories and market base.

[Source: https://roadster.com/Mercedes-Benz and https://roadster.com/BMW]

It baffles me how German manufacturers continue to put more and more models on the market each year. VW for example is actively offering more than 30 different base models right now, each with 4-6 additional variations. Plus new updates and revisions every year or so. How many choices does a consumer really need?

It seems impossible to hit a top price–performance ratio with so much overhead.

There is not much additional overhead to those extra models. Each manufacturer has only a handful of basic platforms and drive trains. They can come up with a new model by just combining existing components and doing a little further customization. So it's worth doing if it allows them to capture some marginal additional sales.

Sure, that's the traditional analysis, but I think some companies (Apple) are showing that a simpler product line can lead to more sales. Customers are less likely to buy if they have too many options in some cases.

You're talking about extremely successful global companies - perhaps catering to the needs of their customers is something that sells more vehicles.

At least the major German manufacturers regally outsell the competition in EU because they actually let people choose what kind of car and equipment suits them. Being shoved down a few lanes Apple style is a common complaint for Asian manufacturers here ("Want that active cruise control? Tough luck, it's +8000EUR and you MUST get leather seats and bunch of other crap as well!" type deals).

Car manufacturers have tried that. It doesn't work, at least not at the high end of the market. There's always another competitor willing to eat your lunch by giving customers something closer to what they actually want. Their products are 1 – 3 orders of magnitude more expensive than Apple's so the market operates in a totally different way.

You can all other manufacturers and in the end, you have the choice between a metallic grey car and a metallic grey car. Or, for the last 2 or 3 years, a white car or a black car. With the same shapes. Yippee! Variety, originality, Hosanna!

BMW sold 2,247,485 (+ Mini) cars in 2015. 100x the numbers of Tesla. And with making money not burning money.

I'm not saying Tesla isn't the next thing and car companies shouldn't be afraid. But it's still a far bet.

In Silicon Valley, the Model S is one of the most common cars. It's taken this area by storm. If that's any indication of future trends, the other companies should be reacting about now.

Extrapolating SV to any global market is mostly a recipe for terrible predictions in my experience.

Yeah. In my west European country, Tesla represents about 3% of the EV market and... 0.03% of the whole market! This, despite electric vehicles being heavily subsidised (which infuriates me because the equivalent of a whole year of minimal wage, or 2 years of minimal income, is given, for each car, to the car buyer (or car manufacturer, depends how you see it)).

I have never seen any.

I wish they refunded long term mass transport tickets that are in consistent use like this... Would be much more environmentally friendly.

No it's not. I see lots of Teslas around here but far more BMWs, followed closely by Audi and Mercedes. I see Priuses everywhere.

And outside of the valley Teslas are very rare by comparison with any other brand.

For a comparison point, in the modestly-wealthy part of northern New England I call home, midnight blue 328 diesel wagons with saddle brown leather interiors are as common as all teslas (I know of four of each).

Midwestern USA here, I've seen two Model S and one roadster in the past 3 years.

> And outside of the valley Teslas are very rare by comparison with any other brand.

i'm not a tesla fanboy, but this isn't true. LA has more. LA has more of everything car-related, because it's LA.

most people that live in the bay area have never actually been to los angeles so they don't comprehend the size of the metro area. it dwarfs the bay in terms of population and sheer size, which is why a lot of people don't like it.

I spent the second half of my childhood there. Haven't been back since. I'll note that quantity is different from density (e.g. per capita) of ownership.

i spend time in both places. you're not going to convince me that the rate of tesla ownership is higher in e.g. palo alto vs e.g. santa monica.

either way it's not "very rare", that just snacks of someone who lives in the sv bubble.

And your point is?

that you are wrong, and you live in a bubble.

i thought i was pretty clear about that, but i guess i should have just kept it short and sweet.

The difference between those numbers will be orders of magnitude larger in other markes - e.g. EU.

But the reason for it is that EU countries are giving extremely generous tax breaks for EV buyers. In some countries you literally pay half the price of an Audi A8 for a Tesla, even though they both have the same sticker price. Those benefits are ending in many places too, so while right this second buying a Tesla S might seem like a smart choice financially, it's not going to last forever. Model 3 might change that once again by being positioned in the different part of the market entirely, but it's still long time away.

> But the reason for it is that EU countries are giving extremely generous tax breaks for EV buyers.

All the more reason the German car giants should've been in the game all along. They are just to tied to their internal combustion investments, such as deeply established knowledge about turbos, advanced gearboxes and so on.

Innovation in big German companies? It's very slow