Tesla has passed Mercedes-Benz for the No. 3 spot in luxury-vehicle registrations this year through September, according to data from Experian.
The electric vehicle maker appears to have enough momentum to close the gap with No. 2 Lexus and U.S. luxury leader BMW before the year is over.
Tesla totaled 230,855 vehicle registrations through the first three quarters of the year, passing Mercedes with 213,708, Experian data showed. Lexus was in second place with 245,864 and BMW was leading the market with 259,237 in the nine-month period.
In last month's Experian report comparing registrations through August, Mercedes was still in third place but Tesla was surging. This month's report shows that Tesla sales rose 76 percent compared with the January-September period last year, while Lexus is up 33 percent and BMW 36 percent.
The California automaker's remarkable rise comes amid a chip shortage that has introduced supply constraints into the battle for luxury buyers. Tesla has been able to weather the semiconductor shortage better than some rivals, partially by using software for functions previously controlled by chips.
"It might be a bit early to say Tesla is surpassing Mercedes in sales permanently, but the fact that it's managed to do so with a much more limited product line is impressive," said Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights at Edmunds. She also said Mercedes has been struggling generally with consumers.
"Given where we are with the chip shortage, it's probably premature to make any sweeping long-term declarations as automakers are grappling with varying degrees of difficulty, but it does show the strength of Tesla," Caldwell said.