From Inside Climate News.
While some people may be pleased to see Tesla and Musk struggle, and most of the damage was self-inflicted, Tesla’s swoon is probably bad for the U.S. EV market.
It helps to have a sense of just how big Tesla is relative to other EV makers that sell in the United States. Last year, 48 percent of the EVs sold here were Teslas and no competitor cracked 10 percent, according to Cox Automotive.
Tesla also is a key player in building and maintaining EV charging stations. If any of the companies behind charging infrastructure run into financial problems, that could be a big concern, said Samantha Houston, a senior manager for the Clean Transportation program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
“Having those publicly accessible networks be reliable, and expanding them, is an essential piece,” she said.
If Tesla or other charging companies scale back their efforts, it would be an impediment to increasing EV ownership for all brands. This is especially true now that most automakers have adopted Tesla’s North American Charging Standard, which means Tesla charging stations can be used by people driving other brands, Houston said.
In addition to practical issues such as charging, Tesla’s struggles could fuel a perception problem for EVs.
“I don’t think it’s good for the EV market to have Tesla seen in a negative light—imploding,” said William Roberts, senior research analyst for Rho Motion, the United Kingdom-based research firm that covers batteries and EVs.
He explained that Tesla is synonymous with EVs, especially for consumers in the United States. For Tesla to be viewed as an object of derision is not helpful for easing the concerns of potential buyers, especially those who are deciding between an EV and a gasoline vehicle.
At the same time, sales figures show that other automakers were able to increase their EV sales to offset Tesla’s decline, and then some. Tesla’s U.S. sales were down 5.6 percent last year compared to 2023, while overall EV sales in the nation—which includes Tesla—were up by 7.3 percent, according to Cox.
Through the first two months of 2025, Tesla sales were down, especially in Europe and China, but global EV sales were way up, according to Rho Motion. Global sales were up 30 percent, including an increase of 35 percent in China and 20 percent in Europe and the United States/Canada. (Rho Motion includes plug-in hybrids in its totals, while Cox doesn’t.)
I just don’t see the EV sales surge as a reason to think that the market is shaking off Tesla’s problems. The reason is simple: We don’t know what sales would have been with a strong Tesla.
In sports terms, a star player is limping. That’s almost never good for the game.
That’s the back half of the article; the first half recounts all the ways in which Tesla has been battered and some dire predictions for its future. The news keeps getting worse since then. You’d likely enjoy reading that, so click over and check it out. I say buy electric, just not a Tesla. If at some point the Tesla board dumps Emlo, we can re-evaluate. But for now, to me the choice is clear.
We don’t allow most other countries to sell certain vehicles here unless they are made here. Open up the market to Chinese cars and see what happens.
Ever seen a Volkswagon truck, they do make them.
https://youtu.be/0AAK3sAuW_U?si=9JLF6lcI5HaMGJ6L
Tesla needs to jettison the Nazi, but have they already reached the point of no return on the brand poisoning?
I would like to see more of the Chinese EVs and solar panels available at a non-tariffed price. The US could have invested much more in R&D for that years ago, but ceded it to China.
By killing off the Nation Science Foundation in addition to any grant that mentioned climate or renewable energy, Trump has ceded everything to China and the EU.
You can thank Solyndra’s 2009-2011 inability to complete against China-made solar panels – we ceded the market to China shortly after that $500M fiasco.
Yeah, I’m going to do my best to not directly fund Musk in anything (obviously can’t avoid the gov’t funding he gets without tax evasion and I’m not that brave or stupid), so as long as he’s involved or a major shareholder, I don’t see any way I’m buying anything being offered by Tesla or Starlink. I don’t really care about what that does to the EV market; my belief in not supporting fascists rises above pretty much anything else.
I would like to change over to an EV, but there are several hurdles (in life and infrastructure) that I’m not ready to jump just yet.