Chinese consumers are “nervous, they are worried about the future,” Mr Deng said. “This is a double blow that Tesla is facing in China.”
Tesla shares are responding in part to the same forces that are driving stock markets around the world: the war in Ukraine, rising interest rates, the threat of a recession, chaos in the supply chain and rising inflation. But Tesla’s shares fell far more than other Silicon Valley giants such as Apple or Alphabet, the company that owns Google.
Tesla accounted for three-quarters of electric cars sold in the United States last year. The company is several years ahead of competitors in batteries and software. But two models – the Model 3 sedan and the Model Y sports car – account for 95 percent of Tesla’s sales. His next vehicle, a pickup truck, has been delayed many times and is not expected until next year at the earliest.
An axiom in the automotive industry is that new models fuel sales. And competition from Hyundai, Ford and Volkswagen is growing, offering drivers much more choice.
Jesse Toprak, a veteran of the automotive industry who is a senior analyst at Autonomy, a company that offers electric cars by subscription, said Tesla’s market share will fall below 40 percent by the end of 2023, although its sales will continue to grow as the common market expands.
“They will have a smaller share of a larger pot,” Mr Toprak said. “But their near-monopoly on U.S. electric car sales will slowly decline.”
Tesla is already facing stiff competition in Europe, where electric vehicles account for 13 percent of new car sales. This portends what could happen in the United States, where sales of battery-powered cars are just beginning to grow. Volkswagen, which invests heavily in electric vehicles, sold 56,000 battery-powered cars in Western Europe in the first three months of the year, just after Tesla sold 58,000, according to data collected by Schmidt Automotive Research in Berlin.
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