BYD took the global EV crown. Now Chinese rivals and local startups are taking over emerging markets.
- Tesla’s sales are dropping globally, with political headwinds and fierce EV rivals throwing up challenges.
- New frontiers beckon, but Tesla faces a showdown with savvy local and Chinese competitors vying for dominance.
- Pricing battles and rapid innovation are putting Tesla to the test, demanding a strategic jolt to regain its edge.
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Tesla hasn’t lost it in 2025, but much earlier.
For example, when they stopped maintaining and improving their successful Model 3 and Model Y, because the ugly tinbox “needed” all research and development resources.
Excuse me. It’s the best looking dumpster on the road.
For sure.
A Model 3 from early 2024 really feels 5-10 years behind a 2026 Kia or Hyundai at this point.
They lost the plot big time somewhere around mid-2022 I think. Would be interesting to learn if Elon started some new designer drug or something around then.
Even the very conservatively designed Polestar at least has good build quality.
BYD is eating everyone’s lunch at the bottom not just Tesla.
Tesla could have prospered by sticking to the mid range but their build quality is appalling even for a lower mid car.
Couple that with some truly dumb design ideas from Elon (no lidar, no physical buttons, indicators as buttons, stupidly high repair bills due to design choices) and some even more stupid personal behaviors from him and he has just cut the legs out of his market.
EV buyers who are spending more money care about this kind of thing, budget buyers it is mostly about price.
Exactly. I’m a budget buyer and Tesla doesn’t make sense. My parents are luxury buyers and Tesla doesn’t make sense. My coworkers buy Tesla, so I guess there’s a market, but the reason they bought doesn’t hold up as well today.
We’ll see what Tesla does, but I think they need to kick out Musk to get there.
BYD is eating everyone’s lunch at the bottom not just Tesla.
It’s not just BYD. SAIC (whose main international brand is MG) isn’t far behind, Chery (whose main brands are Omoda and Jaecoo) are starting to get about too, and there are myriad smaller Chinese marques.
Chinese cars in general are really hitting the market hard.
What I’ve been seeing around here (England) is a major proliferation of Kias and Hyundais. Occasionally I’ll see an electric Mustang or Jaguar.
Yep. Feel like I see more Ioniqs than anything else, although things are gradually diversifying.
BYD was always going to pass Tesla, Elon’s actions just accelerated the timeline
Turns out people want cars they can afford. Crazy stuff
Because the CEO “sent his heart out to the world”. Ain’t no coming back from that public perception, tbh.
Tbh, that would have been extremely simple to come back from: Fire his ass. The issue is that they didn’t.
(Inb4 someone says they cannot fire him for some legal or contract reason: That is a major red flag in and of itself)
I heard the next model, the Tesla SS, with innovative features like doing Nazi salutes out the windows to indicate is going to be a huge hit.
Simulated fart sounds replaced with Sieg Heils.
“Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.”
If the owner of the company wasn’t trying to heil a cab on the national stage, people wouldn’t be doubting these EVs nearly as much.
Not that they’re particularly high quality anyway.
What lead? It’s not a race if nobody else is participating.
Back in the day, Tesla was releasing some of its tech without patent licenses to help other EV makers catch up, to help the environment. Or at least that’s what I remember from the PR.
Back then they wanted to blow their lead so electric cars would do better in general.
.Back then they wanted to blow their lead so electric cars would do better in general.
First-mover advantage wasn’t going to be lost in the near-term due to patent-sharing.
Some asshole bought the company when it had innovative tech and good quality, and hasn’t had the focus to address the inevitable quality issues that come with scaling up production.
Maybe more ketamine will help
“How Tesla blew its load”
Even if it weren’t for all the political stuff Tesla’s are just not very good cars, combined with a truly awful customer service experience.
I have no idea what BYD’s customer service experiences like but the fact that the cars seem to have actually gone through some kind of QA means that they can only be an improvement
Oh & OpenPilot/Comma-AI is an alternative to Tesla’s “auto-pilot”
