Washington, Nov 29 – Tesla is losing market share in the United States as other automakers begin to sell electric vehicles below $50,000, according to a report released on Tuesday.
The S&P Global study points out that although Tesla remains the dominant brand in the electric vehicle (EV) segment, in the US there are more and more EVs from other brands that are reducing their market share.
Of the 525,000 EVs registered in the United States during the first nine months of 2022, nearly 340,000, or 65%, were Tesla models.
By comparison, in 2021 Tesla had 71% of sales and in 2020 the figure was 79%. According to S&P Global, by 2025, Tesla’s market share will drop to 20%, when 159 electric vehicle models will be available in the United States.
When the figures are concentrated only in the luxury EV market -currently 75% of total sales- Tesla’s dominance is greater, with 86% of the market share, ahead of Audi (3%) , Rivian (2%) and Polestar (2%).
Among the brands that are contributing to the fall in Tesla’s market share, for the most affordable part, are the South Korean Hyundai and Kia, as well as the German Volkswagen.
S&P Global added that luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Polestar, Lucid and Rivian are poised to further whittle away Tesla’s market for the top end of the range.
But S&P Global also noted that even as Tesla’s market share shrinks, the number of registrations for the luxury electric vehicle brand will continue to rise in the coming years.
“The EV market in 2022 is a Tesla market and will remain so as long as its competitors are constrained by their production capacity,” said Stephanie Brinley, an associate director at S&P Global.
In the non-luxury EV market, the top brand by sales is Ford, with a 28% market share. Behind are Kia (19%), Hyundai (16%), Chevrolet (16%), Volkswagen (8%) and Nissan (7%).
The report also notes how many of the consumers who are switching from combustion vehicles to electric vehicles this year come from the Japanese brands Toyota and Honda, behind the rest in the electrification of their ranges.
From October 2021 to September 2022, of the 191,000 sales Tesla captured from other brands, 28.6% came from drivers who previously owned Toyota and Honda vehicles.