Tesla’s free fall to 2nd place in the electric vehicle wars: This is the company now dominating EV sales
Telsa has been overtaken in the fight to become the world’s number one electric vehicle company.
Tesla, the long-standing number one in the electric vehicle market, has fallen to second place—and I cannot, for the life of me, think why.
Was it the CEO, Elon Musk, and his pivot to the right? Was it Musk becoming best friends with a wannabe king painted in orange? Was it that salute? Was it Musk, unelected, becoming the head of a government department whose sole aim seemed to be cutting aid for millions of hard-working Americans?
Here are the numbers: CNN reports that Tesla’s Q2 2025 earnings, released after markets closed on July 23, show that revenue shrank 12% year over year to $22.5 billion, while automotive sales plunged 16% to about $16.7 billion—the steepest drop in over a decade.
Operating profit collapsed 42% to around $923 million, leaving Tesla with a slim overall margin of just 4%, well behind rivals like General Motors, which sits at around 7%. Investors, of course, responded sharply: Tesla’s stock crumbled another 8–8.2%.
Musk did not comment directly on the company’s sales during the investor call on Wednesday. Instead, he said, “Yeah, we probably could have a few rough quarters. And I’m not saying we will, but we could.”
The CEO maintained a positive tone, placing his faith in the company’s autonomous robotaxi service: “Autonomy is the story. It amplifies the value to stratospheric levels,” he said.
So, who’s taking the crown? While Tesla still moves a huge volume of vehicles, Chinese EV giants—especially BYD—are now leading the global charge.
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BYD has been gaining momentum for years, and it’s now outpacing Tesla in total EV unit sales, especially in China and other emerging markets where price-sensitive buyers dominate. While Tesla is still pushing innovation, BYD is winning the bread-and-butter EV race on price, volume, and execution.
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