[smackfu]

The CNN headline is definitely misleading:

“Tesla sales beating Mercedes, BMW and Audi.”

No one would guess they are talking about "per model sales" vs "per manufacturer sales", since they are naming manufacturers. It's just linkbait. Tesla really is the new Apple!

[notatoad]

"No one would guess"

really? because my first assumption was that they were comparing sales of Tesla's only model to sales of Mercedes, BMW, and Audi's equivalent models. that is, comparing the sales of one high-end luxury car with the sales of other high-end luxury cars. it seems blindingly obvious that the Model S isn't selling more units than Mercedes' entire range.

[jedmeyers]

But they did not say "Model S vs A8", they had said "Tesla vs Audi" - which does not mean "Model S vs A8".

[notatoad]

they actually did say it. there was a whole article, including a clearly labeled graph, underneath that headline. They didn't say it in the headline, but that's the reason articles exists instead of just headlines - sometimes they have stuff in them.

http://money.cnn.com/2013/05/13/autos/tesla-sales-bmw-merced...

[jedmeyers]

So because the article exists it is now OK to lie in the headlines?

[TwoBit]

I like Tesla, but another consideration is that this is a brand new model splash. The 2014 results numbers will be more telling, given that the newness will have worn off a little.