{"id":85279,"date":"2026-04-14T18:28:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T22:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=85279"},"modified":"2026-04-14T18:28:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T22:28:46","slug":"bmw-vs-lexus-q1-2026-luxury-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=85279","title":{"rendered":"BMW Beat Lexus by 3,274 Cars Last Quarter \u2014 But the Race Is On"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three thousand cars. That\u2019s all that separates BMW from Lexus at the top of the U.S. luxury market after the first quarter of 2026.\u00a0BMW delivered 84,231 vehicles<\/a> between January and March, down 3.9 percent from a year ago. Lexus posted 80,952, a 2.5 percent decline. Both brands lost ground, but the reasons behind each dip tell very different stories about where they\u2019re headed.<\/p>\n

BMW\u2019s SUVs Are Carrying the Brand<\/h3>\n

\"2025<\/a><\/p>\n

The X3 surged 58 percent and the X5 gained 7.1 percent to 18,680 units, keeping BMW afloat while its car lineup dropped 17.3 percent. Even the 3 Series ticked up 10.2 percent to 8,189 sales \u2014 helped in part by buyers rushing to secure one before a generational redesign arrives for 2027. The 8 Series, now in its final weeks of production, outsold every quarter of 2025 combined as last-chance buyers moved quickly. Electrified vehicles are down 50 percent from a year ago after the Trump administration stripped federal EV incentives.<\/p>\n

Lexus Is Playing a Different Game<\/h3>\n

The ES sedan \u2014 the brand\u2019s long-running volume leader \u2014 fell by two-thirds to just 3,044 units. The fully redesigned 2026 ES is just now hitting dealerships in electric form, with the hybrid variant following in late June. In exchange, the RZ electric crossover tripled its sales to 4,456 units, a record. The NX Plug-in Hybrid hit 3,229 units, also a record. Total electrified deliveries reached 34,907 \u2014 nearly 43 percent of all Lexus sales.<\/p>\n

The real test for both BMW and Lexus arrives over the next three months. For BMW, it\u2019s whether the SUV engine can sustain its momentum while the car lineup transitions and electrified sales find a new floor without federal support. For Lexus, it\u2019s whether the new ES \u2014 arriving in two waves, electric first, hybrid to follow \u2014 can recapture the volume the nameplate carried for years and convert the brand\u2019s electrification credibility into conquest sales.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three thousand cars. That\u2019s all that separates BMW from Lexus at the top of the U.S. luxury market after the first quarter of 2026.\u00a0BMW delivered 84,231 vehicles between January and March, down 3.9 percent from a year ago. Lexus posted 80,952, a 2.5 percent decline. Both brands lost ground, but the reasons behind each dip […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":85280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/85280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}