Spearheaded by the Tesla Model S, the all-electric vehicle market continues to pick up steam with each passing year. Encouraged by Tesla’s success, not to mention an ever-increasing interest in electric vehicles from consumers, other car manufacturers have been steadily allocating more and more engineering resources towards EV development.
Today, the EV market is brimming with all sorts of makes and models from a variety of manufacturers. From the BMW i3 and the Ford Fusion Energi to the recently unveiled Chevy Volt EV, the number of available EV options is markedly and impressively larger today than it was just two years ago.
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Looking ahead, it stands to reason that the EV market is on the precipice of an explosion. There are even strong indications that Apple may eventually want to dip its toe into the EV market as early as 2019. All that said, Tesla above all others finds itself in a prime position to capitalize on the growing popularity of all-electric cars. In fact, one can even make a strong case arguing that the EV market is largely Tesla’s to lose, partly because it’s a market that they already dominate and partly because the release of the highly anticipated Model 3 is just around the corner.
If we take a look at the best selling electric cars in the U.S. in 2015, the Tesla Model S wins by a landslide. In 2015, over 25,000 Model S vehicles were sold in the U.S., with the next closest competitors being the Nissan Leaf (17,269 units sold), the Chevy Volt (15,393 sold), the BMW i3 (11,024 sold) and the Ford Fusion Energi (9,750 sold).
What makes Tesla’s position in the top spot all the more impressive is that it’s one of the more expensive electric car on the list. Clearly, the premium market for EVs is already dominated by Tesla. What’s more, as economical EVs begin to pick up traction in the marketplace, it stands to reason that Tesla, if it plays its cards right, can easily dominate the entire EV market once it releases the Model 3.
No matter what metric you’re inclined to look at, it’s hard not to see Tesla’s advantageous position in the EV market. In addition to a phenomenal reputation that’s practically synonymous with innovation, the company also boasts a global network of Superchargers. Once the Model 3 becomes available, the company will finally have an EV priced in the $35,000 range, thereby making Tesla ownership more affordable to a larger cross-section of the population than ever before. And when also consider Tesla’s knack for design and engineering prowess as it pertains to performance and safety, it becomes increasingly clear that the EV market is essentially Tesla’s to lose.
Tesla may have competition at both the high and low-end of the market, but there’s simply no indication that Tesla is poised to cede any of its market dominance to another company. Either way, the auto industry over the next 2-3 years will likely experience a tectonic shift the likes of which we haven’t seen in quite some time.
