At least 3 more years, Tesla is still the king of electric cars in the US, it is difficult for anyone to topple

According to Bloomberg, Tesla will remain as the top seller of electric vehicles in the US until at least 2026 as its sales have recently recovered thanks to sharp price cuts.

Tesla models currently account for 18% of the domestic electric vehicle market. This number puts them firmly at the top, leaving GM and Ford Motor in competition for No. 2 with about 14% market share each. 3rd place belongs to Stellantis NV with 8%.

The forecast marks a shift after research firm Murphy said last year that Tesla is likely to be overtaken by Ford and GM by 2025. The latest report, however, suggests that the landscape has changed due to Tesla’s price cut.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is ready to accept lower profits when he cuts prices to keep market share. With affordability an increasingly important factor in wider electric vehicle adoption, Tesla is well-suited to protect its market leadership through additional price cuts and new models. new. The report predicts the company will launch a new, low-cost car in 2026 and a refurbished Model 3 next year.

“Elon has dropped more prices than we thought,” Murphy’s side said. “Every home’s electric car won’t come out until 2026. Before that lower-priced car comes out, if Musk wants to grow, he has to keep lowering the price.”

Recently, General Motors said that it will shake hands with Tesla and be allowed to use Tesla’s fast charging station (supercharger), following in the footsteps of Ford Motor. With the participation of GM, Tesla’s charging standard is expected to become the new standard of the electric vehicle industry in the US.

GM CEO Mary Barra officially announced the news on Twitter on June 8 and said GM electric vehicle owners will have access to 12,000 Tesla fast charging ports.

“This partnership is an important part of our strategy and an important next step in rapidly expanding access to fast chargers for customers,” Ms. Barra said in a statement. “Not only will it make the transition to EVs more seamless for our customers, but it can also help move the industry towards a single charging standard in North America.”

Immediately after the news, shares of GM rose more than 5% and Tesla also gained 2.7%.

Through the peak

Fortune newspaper said that Tesla in particular and the economy in general are in an unstable period. After years of dominating the electric vehicle market, Tesla suddenly realized that it had too many potential competitors to enter the market.

People’s environmental awareness as well as emission regulations have forced countless traditional gasoline car corporations to switch to electric cars. As a result, people have more and more choices while Tesla still only sells 4 main models, the S-3-XY, making many buyers feel “old-fashioned”.

With more players, Tesla’s market share has plummeted from 30.4% globally in the first quarter of 2020 to only 16.5% in the first quarter of 2023. In China, where 59% of the world’s electric cars are sold, eight of the top 10 most popular models are domestic, and BYD has knocked Tesla out of the top 1.

However, new players are not the only problem causing Elon Musk headaches.

The situation of inflation, the risk of recession makes people tend to be slower to change their old car when the installment interest rate is extremely high.

Then, young customers now realize that electric vehicles cause environmental pollution as much as gasoline cars because the exploitation of Lithium and other raw materials for batteries has a heavy impact on water sources.

A report from the University of California shows that if all Americans switched to electric vehicles by 2050 according to the government’s plan, the world would need to triple current annual lithium mining production to be able to do so. sufficient response.

Besides, geopolitical issues also cause Elon Musk to have a headache. The majority of Tesla cars sold today are made in China and will sell about 440,000 units in 2022 in this market. Therefore, the tension in US-China relations will make Elon Musk’s empire in trouble.

Then the fact that Elon Musk continuously made statements and actions that caught the attention of the public, thereby affecting the stock price as well as consumers’ attitudes towards Tesla’s products.

Faced with those difficulties, the Tesla founder accepted to burn $22 billion in cash reserves to lower product prices and protect market share while continuing to invest heavily in the automatic driving system, the technology that Elon has built. Musk believes it will be the future of the electric car industry.

“We are the only electric vehicle company today that can theoretically break even and then profit long-term in the future when we have dominated the autonomous electric vehicle market. No car company today can do that,” Elon Musk told shareholders.

Source: Bloomberg