How Tesla blew its lead.

Submitted ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Tea@programming.dev⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://restofworld.org/2025/tesla-loses-ground-chinese-ev-dominate-global-markets/

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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remotelove@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
“Political headwinds” is putting it mildly.

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- UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Poor Elon simply gave his heart and love to the world by raising his right arm at a 45° angle after tapping his left boob. He did nazi anything wrong with that.
  
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  - Xanthobilly@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    The excuse his enablers give is absurd. Ask yourself what’s worse: give a Nazi salute on TV or doing a gesture the entire world knows as a Nazi salute on TV and not realizing it? They’re both bad enough that he shouldn’t be in charge of a lemonade stand.
    
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NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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.

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- Terevos@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Excuse me. It’s the best looking dumpster on the road.
  
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- shaggyb@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  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.
  
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  - futatorius@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Even the very conservatively designed Polestar at least has good build quality.
    
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tankplanker@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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.

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- sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  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.
  
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- Patch@feddit.uk ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  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.
  
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  - futatorius@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    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.
    
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- gian@lemmy.grys.it ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  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.
  
  Well, some of these dumb design ideas are not really from Elon and it is not that other car manufacturer are too much different…
  
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  - tankplanker@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Which ones aren’t? Also deciding to copy dumb ideas from elsewhere is even more dumb as someone else did the alpha testing for you, showed it was dumb, and you still copied it.
    
    I forgot the yoke instead of a wheel. That’s another Elon special.
    
    Buttons for indicators I know are on modern ferraris, I can’t afford one but I still wouldn’t buy one because of them. Try using buttons on a steering wheel when doing a right at a roundabout, just the dumbest shit.
    
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yessikg@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
BYD was always going to pass Tesla, Elon’s actions just accelerated the timeline

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ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Turns out people want cars they can afford. Crazy stuff

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gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Because the CEO “sent his heart out to the world”. Ain’t no coming back from that public perception, tbh.

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- bob_lemon@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Tbh, that would have been extremely simple to come back from: Fire his ass. The issue is that they didn’t.
  
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- sirboozebum@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  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.
  
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  - futatorius@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Simulated fart sounds replaced with Sieg Heils.
    
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  - Shayeta@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.”
    
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OCATMBBL@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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.

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Viri4thus@feddit.org ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
What lead? It’s not a race if nobody else is participating.

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gian@lemmy.grys.it ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
The problem is that Chinese EVs builder are heavily subsidized from the state and Tesla not (or not to that amount). Also a Tesla has a tag price that put it in the medium-high range, and it is obvious that the biggest market is for low-medium range priced car.

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- clutchtwopointzero@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Eh. Both received subsidies. No one is a saint
  
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  - sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Sure, but the scale is way different.
    
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  - gian@lemmy.grys.it ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I agree.
    The point is how much subsidies they receive. Chinese automakers seems to get way more (up to 30% if not more of the cost) than Tesla. That way it is easy to win on competitors.
    
    BTW, the 30% is not a personal educated guest, it is the estimated figure given by a very trustworthy economic journal which did an investigation and discovered that that some chinese automaker could probably absorb a 30% tariffs without changing the selling price.
    
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sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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.

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- futatorius@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  .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.
  
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futatorius@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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.

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- TheFriar@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Maybe more ketamine will help
  
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dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
The article should just be “This Guy” followed by photos of Elon doing his thing for the last year or so.

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nectar45@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
“How Tesla blew its load”

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echodot@feddit.uk ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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

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- dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  True, I can’t imagine buying a used Tesla knowing that I’d still have to make monthly payments to keep some features.
  
  I’m honestly surprised there isn’t a jailbreak community that completely replaces the Tesla OS with something else.
  
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MITM0@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Oh & OpenPilot/Comma-AI is an alternative to Tesla’s “auto-pilot”

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