Tesla Model 3 Owners Ditch Toyota Prius And BMW 3 Series But Conflicting Results In Brand Survey

The Tesla Model 3 fared well in surveys this past week, though one showed conflicting results.

A Bloomberg survey showed U.S. car buyers are not only trading in upscale sedans like the BMW 3 Series for the Model 3 but also decidedly less-luxurious brands like the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic, and Honda Accord.

Here are the highlights of Bloomberg’s “Top 10 Cars Given Up for a Tesla Model 3”*

• No. 1 was Toyota Prius, with an average selling price of $27,080
• No. 2, the BMW 3 Series, with an average selling price of $46,477
• No. 5, the Nissan Leaf with an average selling price of $34,562
• Others ranked in the top ten were inexpensive cars like the Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Honda Civic, and Mazda 3

“I’m not rich, I’m an ordinary man with an ordinary job,” Bloomberg quoted one Tesla Model 3 buyer as saying. Which demonstrates that the Model 3 is winning over less-affluent Americans too.

BMW the biggest loser

While Toyota was the hardest hit in raw customer conversions to the Model 3, the lost sales don’t impact the Japanese automaker as much (compared to BMW) since it sells so many cars in the U.S., according to Bloomberg.

BMW, however, has the “most to lose—almost five times more vulnerable than Mercedes-Benz,” said Bloomberg, adding that “Mercedes is built for comfort and class, while BMW is defined by its driving performance.”

Another EV survey showed Tesla ranked both higher and lower than Toyota

“Tesla is the leader when it comes to brand perception,” according to a survey by CarGurus released this past week.

Tesla was ranked at the top with 33% of all respondents saying that it is the company most trusted to develop EVs. Toyota was second with 14%, Honda 8%, General Motors 7%, and Ford 6%.

However, Tesla was ranked lower than Toyota in another survey question, the “most popular brands among shoppers that are likely to purchase an EV in the next six months.” Here, the Japanese carmaker was ranked No. 1, at 54%, and Tesla second, at 52%.

This is surprising because Toyota is, in fact, not a leader in pure electric vehicle sales in the U.S. The most popular Toyota electric vehicle in the U.S. is the Prius Prime. But that is a plug-in hybrid with a gas engine and gets only about 25 miles of battery range. The Prime mustered sales of only 1,650 vehicles in the U.S. in September, far behind the Model 3’s sales number of 19,100.

It could be that respondents are conflating the Toyota Prius hybrid – a longtime favorite with green car buyers – with an EV.

I queried CarGurus about this (they have yet to respond).

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NOTES:

*The Model 3 had an average price of $50,528