BMW should be scared of Tesla, according to a survey of 5,000 Model 3 owners
- Based on the results of a survey of 5,000 Tesla Model 3 owners, Bloomberg concluded that BMW is more vulnerable to competition from Tesla than any other automaker.
- More respondents traded in BMW vehicles, as a proportion of the company's US market share, for their Model 3 than vehicles from any other brand.
- And respondents traded in the BMW 3 Series sedan more than any other vehicle aside from the Toyota Prius.
- While the Model 3 has outsold the 3 Series in the US, BMW still generates higher overall sales and profit margins than Tesla, which has not yet earned an annual profit.
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Tesla is too small to make a serious dent in the sales of large automakers like Toyota, but a smaller, luxury competitor could have reason to worry, according to a Bloomberg survey of 5,000 Tesla Model 3 sedan owners.
More respondents traded in BMW vehicles, as a proportion of the company's US market share, for their Model 3 than vehicles from any other brand. And respondents traded in the BMW 3 Series sedan more than any other vehicle aside from the Toyota Prius sedan.
Bloomberg concluded that BMW is more vulnerable to competition from Tesla than any other automaker, based on the results of its survey.
"No one has been hurt more by Tesla's success than BMW," the publication wrote.
BMW did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
The Model 3 outsold BMW's 3 Series in the US during 2018 and the first half of 2019, according to company figures and estimates from the electric-vehicle website InsideEVs. And the Model 3 commands a higher average price ($50,528) than the 3 Series ($46,477), according to Bloomberg's estimate and data cited from Edmunds.
But BMW still outsells Tesla overall, both in the US and globally, and earns much higher profit margins than the electric-car maker, which has not yet made an annual profit.
In a column about Bloomberg's survey, Business Insider's Matthew DeBord cited BMW's healthy profit margins, wide variety of vehicle offerings, and stable US market share as reasons why BMW is not threatened by Tesla.
"BMW doesn't have a Tesla problem," DeBord wrote.
Read the results of Bloomberg's survey here.
Are you a current or former Tesla employee? Do you have an opinion about what it's like to work there? Contact this reporter at mmatousek@businessinsider.com. You can ask for more secure methods of communication, like Signal or ProtonMail, by email or Twitter direct message.
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