(Reuters) – Tesla Inc’s Model Y and Model 3 electric vehicles were the top-sellers in California last year, outselling Toyota Motor Corp’s RAV4 and Camry models, according to an industry body report.
It is the first time a Tesla model topped the annual sales list in California, a major vehicle market where one in five cars is electric.
Austin, Texas-based Tesla sold 87,257 Model Y electric sport utility vehicles and 78,934 Model 3 electric sedans last year, while Toyota sold 59,794 units of its RAV4 SUV and 55,967 of its Camry sedans, the California New Car Dealers Association said in its report.
In 2021, the Camry was the top-seller in California, followed by the Model Y, Honda’s Civic and RAV4, and the Model 3.
Toyota retained its top spot in the state for vehicle brands, with a market share of 17.3% in 2022, followed by Tesla at 11.2%.
The report noted that the appetite for Tesla’s vehicles is much larger in California than the nationwide average, which accounts for only 3.5 percent of the brand market share.
Last year, zero-emission vehicles accounted for 19% of all cars sold in California, which brought in 40% of all sales of electric vehicles, including hybrid vehicles, in the United States.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
