According to Cox Automotive [1], through the entirety of Q1 2023, Tesla's US EV market share is 62.4%. I'm not sure why Jalopnik elected to use data from only January and February, but given their editorial history with respect to Tesla, it's not especially surprising they cherry-picked. You can see the Cox Automotive data rendered as a chart in [2].<p>In general, EV market share is a misleading metric since a decline for anyone holding a 100% market position is inevitable. Market share will drift downward as the number of deliveries from competitors grows; it doesn't seem rational to expect Tesla to retain 50+% of the US EV market share in the long term. Spinning that gradual decrease in EV market percentage as a dire concern reeks of an agenda.<p>It's also bizarre to focus on Model S, when Tesla's Q1 press release [3] says that Model S and X units are in transit overseas. S and X are manufactured in California and shipped to customers worldwide. Some of those customers have been waiting two years for their orders to be fulfilled. It's clear Tesla finally prioritized some overseas delivers of those two models to satisfy their shockingly-patient overseas customers. Contrary to the Jalopnik narrative, even with a large portion routed to other countries, US sales of S and X still exceeded popular media darlings (and good cars, mind you) such as the Rivian R1T (outsold by Model X) and F-150 Lightning (outsold by Model S).<p>[1] <a href="https://www.coxautoinc.com/market-insights/q1-2023-ev-sales/" rel="nofollow">https://www.coxautoinc.com/market-insights/q1-2023-ev-sales/</a><p>[2] <a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fth_aAtXwBQDUvK?format=png&name=900x900" rel="nofollow">https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fth_aAtXwBQDUvK?format=png&name=...</a><p>[3] <a href="https://ir.tesla.com/press-release/tesla-vehicle-production-deliveries-and-date-financial-results-webcast-first-quarter-2023" rel="nofollow">https://ir.tesla.com/press-release/tesla-vehicle-production-...</a>
My wife's Tesla (Model Y) has poor steering, minor misalignment of weatherstripping on the door, and the interior is austere (to put it politely--it feels like I'm in a cleanroom or some box out of a modern minimalist's wet-dream). Meanwhile the Rivian pick-up I test drove feels like an actual vehicle on the inside and had better handling. Same thing for the all-electric BMW SUV, the Mach-E, and the Mercedes I took for a spin. I won't buy a Tesla electric vehicle.
Competition implies some sort of zero sum game which has nothing to do with it. Tesla's factories are all running full throttle and they're building more.<p>The market as whole is getting larger. Not only is that great, but it's also exactly Tesla's mission statement - Accelerating the World's Transition to Sustainable Energy.<p>Tesla is helping the competition even more by starting to open up their reliable charger network.
Ok, so I’m going to come in negative, but this is how I personally really feel.<p>So far Tesla has inconsistent and sometimes very poor quality, horror stories of poor support, overpromising and under delivery on self-driving while dramatically raising its price, a CEO who can’t show up, constant optimization of their offer focused on cutting cost and maximizing profitability instead of securing the position of best-in-class and focusing on long-term customer loyalty (I find myself always going, “which sensors did they remove <i>this</i> time?”), and price increases followed by dramatic price cuts and a history of willingness to straight up just screw over recent customers with dramatic price drops.<p>I wanted one until all that went down. Now, I wouldn’t buy a Tesla if it was half the price. I know there’s a lot of Tesla bulls on here, but I can’t be the only one who’s just not interested in all that.<p>Tesla as a company is also constant drama, drama, drama. I just want my car to quietly work for a few decades without surprises.<p>So, the numbers might look good but the way I feel — and it’s subjective — is that what Tesla is all about is not something we want in our lives. Musk has overpromised and underdelivered on key features of the Tesla. He spent the last decade promising "that driverless Teslas are right around the corner."<p>But even beyond all that, I just don’t like the company direction and behavior anymore — they’ve lost me as a customer. And I know quite a few people who feel that way.<p>Plus, I don’t find them very comfortable to sit in. Coming from Mercedes, Honda and Toyota ownership, I just really didn’t like the interior comfort.<p>Not a rant against Tesla, but it’s honestly my perspective. I think Tesla is in trouble a bit, even though I see healthy margins and think the article is a lot of hooey generally. But I wonder if I’m in the minority on this stuff, because I do hear people with similar feelings to my own on fair occasion.
The chart in this article tells a more balanced tale.<p>The size of the US EV pie doubled and Tesla's growth didn't. But while Tesla's share is not yet in freefall, the trend is quite alarming. The group growing share is fractionated.<p><a href="https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1134120_tesla-is-losing-us-ev-market-share-but-gaining-luxury-share-now-outselling-mercedes-benz" rel="nofollow">https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1134120_tesla-is-losing...</a>
When you are at 72% of a market that's expected to increase 10x over the next decade, staying at that market share is pretty tough. It's not something anyone should expect or desire from a healthy market.<p>Tesla can both lose market share and continue doubling sales year over year. Both are true when you are measuring market share of the "EV market" which is still single-digit percentages of the overall auto market.
Tesla's goal is 20% of the entire market. They're making positive progress on that goal. They don't care about their share of the EV market.
Wouldnt this suggest that Tesla has won?<p>If their sales are increasing and market share is dropping that signals that incumbants have been dragged kicking and screaming into the EV market<p>As an investor in TSLA I dont understand why this is presented as a negative outcome, its quite literally what they are attempting to do by making their patents open.
This is surely to be expected. Tesla were on of the first major players in the market and can't dominate forever as others catchup. The real measure is are their year on year sales up?
Charging network is also a big reason why people buy Teslas. According to Marques Brownlee, the third party chargers fail around half the time and it's a ridiculously bad number.<p>If they make the charging network robust and equally reliable as Teslas supercharger, it'll be game on.
I took one as an uber and had to have the driver pull over and let me out. The suspension was so bad it was making me sick, it was like being in a golf cart. I now have a physical aversion to them. Definitely not buying one.