Cars and Drivers

America's Fastest Growing Car Companies, Led by Tesla

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: August 11, 2016 9:10 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 4:42 am

No matter how much investors are concerned about Tesla Motors Inc.’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) production slowdown and its chances to reach 500,000 in sales by 2020, it was the fastest growing car company in America through the first seven months of the year, compared to the same period in 2015.

Most of the car companies with surges in sales are small and sell cars in the luxury category. Here are the six fastest growing car companies in America.

Tesla’s sales rose 80.8% in the first seven months to 19,800. At this rate, it will be hard to reach its 50,000 goal. BMW in particular is publicly chasing Tesla with its i3 and i8 models.

Next on the list, Jaguar sales are up 58.5% to 14,389. The brand is owned by Indian manufacturer Tata Motors Ltd. (NYSE: TTM). It has outrun its poor reputation for quality and now gets high ratings in J.D. Power studies. It has a number of models that sell for $60,000 and few below that.

Land Rover, another U.K. brand that dates back decades, had a 14.5% increase to 42,723. It is Jaguar’s stablemate at Tata, and another brand that sells extremely expensive vehicles for the most part.

Volvo, a brand once left for dead, had a sales increase of 29.3% to 45,237. The company is now owned by Chinese manufacturer Geely.

The Chrysler brand of Fiat Chrysler N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) posted a 6.3% increase to 1,312,145. It is the largest company on the list. As sales of Chrysler and Dodge have faltered, Jeep sales have surged.

Nissan has bested its larger Japanese rivals Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) and Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (NYSE: HMC) with a sales increase of 7.3% to 867,355.

All of this is against a backdrop of a very modest increase of sales across the entire industry, which has made economists nervous about the state of consumer spending. Car and light truck sales through the first seven months were up 1.3% to 10,167,064.