Yahoo Finance autos reporter Pras Subramanian details how Tesla has beat out BMW as the top luxury car brand in the U.S. market and consumers for the first time ever.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: Well, speaking of Tesla, a bit of good news here for Musk, his EV maker overtaking BMW as a top luxury car brand in the US. Certainly a significant shift and really shows the popularity of Tesla at this point.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Yeah, not just EVs, but overall top luxury brand, that we're looking at Experian data of registrations last year. The reason why we got to use registration data is because Tesla doesn't break out their sales by region. So we're seeing there Tesla 484,000 registrations versus the BMW 327,000. So a pretty big disparity there. It's kind of a big-- it is a big deal for Tesla to do this. Other automakers sell a fraction of their cars or EVs, whereas Tesla's all EV, so interesting there. But don't feel too bad for BMW. The Consumer Reports just name the top brand overall in terms of auto, so there's that for them.

DAVE BRIGGS: Yeah, you mentioned that. Consumer Reports releasing its top 10 car picks for '23, and most of them are either electric vehicles or hybrids. What are some of the highlights of this report, Pras?

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: We have these top 10 cars here, and we've noted a couple here by price range. And I think these four are kind of ones I think are notable for a number of reasons, right? It's a cross section of what America is buying. That first one there is that Corolla hybrid. $25,000, $25,000. 48 NPG. Comes with the tech safety suite. This is what America wants. They want cheap and affordable. They want good feature set. The Ford Maverick, again, a compact pickup, starts at $23,000. It's a hybrid as well. 37 NPG. That's a good package. I've driven that car before. It's actually really, really nice.

DAVE BRIGGS: That's a great buy.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Yeah, yeah, and then of course, Tesla, the Model 3, the cheapest there, version at $43,000. 310 miles of range. Good-- sporty enough. Good efficiency. And this is before tax credits, $43,000. So that's a pretty good deal. And finally, the Kia Telluride. Three-row SUV-- that's what America wants. Kia is making this. They can't keep enough in stock. Seven-seater there. Cheap with good features, good touch and field, good design, starting at 36k. It's not a bad car.