Tesla loses the ground because Chinese EVS dominate the global markets

Tesla has a hard year.

Once worldwide on the electrical vehicle market, the company’s sales in the USA, China and several European countries fell back in February compared to the year, and its share price fell by almost 50%compared to mid -December.

The policies of the Tesla leader Elon Musk and the rising Chinese rivals both contribute to the drop in sales. In Germany, where Musk supported the right populist party, Tesla’s turnover collapsed by 76% last month. In the United States, the company recorded 6%for President Donald Trump after the support of Musk. In China, where there is resident in Shenzhen BydIBydBYD Auto is a Chinese automobile manufacturer who became the world’s leading EV manufacturer in 2023 and competes with Tesla for market shares and global attention.Read more The best-selling EV mark is Tesla’s sales by 49%.

Tesla increases his presence in the aspiring economies. It opens its first shops in India and Saudi Arabia and builds an office in South Africa. In the new markets, Tesla’s problems cannot be solved, since it is probably not exposed to hard competition from Chinese automobile manufacturers and several local companies that have dealt with their heels deep in their countries. According to experts in the EV industry, it is unlikely that Tesla’s steep prices and limited product options will advertise buyers in these new markets.

“Tesla needs more than India, Tesla needs” Rest of the world. There are several reasons why the third largest market in the world will be a tough fight for the company.

Tata Motors, the local automotive giant, packed over 60% of the Indian market with its popular and economically inexpensive electric cars. China’s BYD and MG Motor are also among the five best EV sellers in the country. The car manufacturers have grown quickly in India by working with hail companies.

“Indian car manufacturers, especially Tata, already have a strong impact on the EV market” Rest of the world. “In addition, they position the diverse EV lists of Tata and the future expansion plans in various vehicle segments to cope with the competitive pressure from the occurrence of Tesla.”

While Tesla would have to build up its presence by the ground up, Tata already has an established sales network and customer service in city and rural India, which gives the company a significant advantage, said Vasudevan.

Musk has been announced in an entry in India since 2016, but this is not the case, since Tesla did not negotiate lower import taxes with the government. This could change soon. Last month, Musk met with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington, where they discussed spatial technology, mobility and innovation. On March 11th, the largest telecommunications companies of India, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, partnerships with Musk Satellite Company Starlink, announced that they had difficulty receiving a license to operate in the country. Tesla did not answer a request for comment on this story.

The Chinese makers quickly made themselves innovative, and BYD revealed a number of vehicles this week that, according to information, can charge almost as quickly as it takes to recharge a regular car. The success of the Chinese brands in emerging countries is mainly due to their price strategy and the variety of models they offer. Tesla does not yet have to agree, said John Jörn Stech, an international automotive expert and main consultant at the Shiftgate Consulting based in New York, told Rest of the world.

“Chinese competitors continuously organize new models and open their products,” said Stech. “In comparison, Tesla products for Chinese and Asian consumers who have a preference for new things look more constant and stale.”

Tesla is available in several Southeast Asian markets, but remains in most Chinese players. For example, in Thailand, the largest EV market in the region, the five most important EV brands in 2024 were Chinese, whereby BYD led the pack with a big lead. With only 4,121 cars sold, Tesla took sixth place in 2024 compared to more than 27,000 from BYD.

Experts take over Tesla in emerging countries

South America

“Tesla does not offer price points and positioning like Chinese brands. It cannot do so if it does not have another Tesla model -3 moment in which a single model takes over the world, which is now more difficult because the Chinese have increased themselves.” – Lei Xing, Independent auto analyst.

Southeast Asia

“Chinese brands have expanded their production to the region. Tesla has put a long way to reduce costs, but the costs for the EV is a challenge. Only BYD has found out how to produce affordable electric vehicles that appeal to global customers.” – Martin Schröder, Associate Professor, College of Policy Science, Ritsumeikan University.

India

“Local manufacturers such as Tata Motors have invested in the infrastructure and gained valuable knowledge of consumers, which gives them an advantage. When Tesla has been determined, his future movements will start the local production or the introduction of a budget-friendly model determination of how deeply it can penetrate.” – Vivek Kumar, Project manager Automotive, the data analysis company Globaldata based in Great Britain.

China

“Five years ago, Tesla was the ‘Wels in the pool of the sardines’. Now it is one of the sardines because the Huawei and Xiaomis have become the catfish. – Lei xing, Independent auto analyst.

In other Southeast Asian countries, only limited EV sales data are available, but according to Martin Schröder, Associate Professor at the College of Policy Science of Riteumeikan University, Tesla in Malaysia and Singapore takes second place in Cambodia and in Cambodia.

“Tesla was put under pressure in Asia because the competition of the Chinese rival has been dramatically recorded in the past two years,” said Stech. “In view of the almost 50% decline in deliveries in China, sales in Europe and a decline in sales in the USA, Tesla will unlikely to search for expansion markets. You must set the markets in which you have already made considerable investments.”

In Saudi Arabia, Tesla plans to open his first “pop-up shops” and at least one showroom soon. Reports in South African media said in January that Tesla was shortly before setting up an office in the country.

But that could be too little, too late. Saudi Arabia, for example, supports other EV companies that could give them an advantage.

Until 2019, the Souverign Wealth Fund in Saudi Arabia, the public investment fund, held more than 8.2 million shares in Tesla. It sold most of the shares in 2019 and has since founded the American EV manufacturer Lucid Motors and Ceer, an automobile manufacturer, under a joint venture between the Sovergägn Fund and Chinas Foxconn. Last year Lucid officially opened the first automotive plant in Saudi Arabia.

A market on which Tesla has found success are the United Arab Emirates in which the company has set up in large cities in the Supercharger networks. The country has accepted the luxurious positioning of Tesla’s cars, and the company, together with other EV players, benefited from government incentives such as free public charges, preferred parking spaces and exceptions to registration fees.