Tesla is Stealing Toyota Buyers

Tesla sales are booming and a portion of it comes courtesy of previous Toyota owners.

According to a recent study conducted by IHS Automotive, about 15.5 percent of Tesla Model S buyers owned a Toyota vehicle at the time of the purchase. Unfortunately, the data isn’t very clear as to whether or not those owners are trading in their Toyota vehicles or purchased a Model S to complement the Toyota in the garage.

“The Toyota conquests by the Model S are being driven by the Prius, which is the number one model conquested by the Model S,” said IHS Automotive analyst Tom Libby.

Regardless, it is likely that wealthier Prius owners are looking at the Model S as a more refined, high-performance offering than their Prius hybrid.

Add in the Lexus arm from Toyota and the numbers are even more impressive. Over a quarter (25.3%) of Tesla customers in the U.S. owned either a Toyota or Lexus vehicle at the time of the Model S purchase. As for Nissan Leaf owners, the electric sedan from Nissan ranks seventh on the Model S conquest list.

Tesla isn’t just stealing Toyota buyers though, nearly 11 percent of Tesla owners also owned a Mercedes-Benz vehicle while 10 percent had a BMW.