Lexus the top selling luxury brand in US

Toyota Motor Corp’s premium Lexus brand outsold its German rivals in the US luxury market in the third quarter, a sign it’s navigating the global chip shortage more deftly than competitors.

Lexus sold 81,093 vehicles in the quarter, led by its RX and NX SUVs, which accounted for more than half its deliveries in the period. BMW AG, which counts on its Spartanburg, South Carolina, plant for popular crossovers like the X3 and X5, delivered 75,619 vehicles.

Auto sales tumbled across the industry last quarter as recent Covid19 outbreaks in Malaysia hampered semiconductor production. Despite ongoing efforts to shore up the supply chain, semiconductor availability has worsened as carmakers exhaust stockpiles and other industries have no more to spare.

Lexus managed to top MercedesBenz and BMW even though it had fewer cars on dealer lots, said Michelle Krebs, an analyst for Autotrader, a unit of researcher Cox Automotive.

“What we have seen throughout the shortage is that Toyota and Lexus have extremely efficient distribution systems,” she said. “Despite having the lowest inventories in the industry, they still seem to manage to get vehicles quickly to dealers for sale.”

Mercedes took the biggest hit in the third quarter, with US sales falling 21% from July through September compared to 2020.

BMW brand sales grew 8.7% from a year ago, when pandemic shutdowns were idling plants, while Lexus was up 7.7% in the same period.

Sales at Audi AG were also dampened by chip shortages last quarter, falling 14% year-over-year to 41,019.