Tesla Model Y Posts Huge US EV Market Share

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Mar 18, 9:15AM EDT

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Two Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) models dominate the American electric vehicle (EV) market.
However, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) and other rivals may gain market share in this quarter.

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Tesla Model Y Posts Huge US EV Market Share — © jetcityimage / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

Despite sales struggles, two Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) models dominate the American electric vehicle (EV) market. In the final quarter of last year, 26% of EVs sold nationwide were the Tesla Model Y, 15% were Model 3, and no other car model was over 6%.

At this point, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F), General Motors, and Hyundai/Kia are each approaching 10% of the U.S. market share, but each has spent billions of dollars on EV units, which continue to lose money. Ford has likely lost $20 billion already. Tesla, on the other hand, makes money.

Ford offers the best example of the enormous legacy car company investments in EVs that have yielded little. Ford’s Mustang Mach-E crossover is named after its iconic sports car, which was first sold in 1964. Ford forecasted it would sell 100,000 Mustangs that year. It sold 400,000. In the fourth quarter of 2024, the new Mach-E had only 4.4% of the U.S. market. It has offered heavy incentives, such as aggressive financing of 0% for 72 months.

Another example of Ford’s ambitious hopes is its EV flagship, the F-150 Lightning. The gasoline-powered F-series pickup represents about 35% of Ford’s total sales in the United States. The gasoline-powered F-150 has been the best-selling vehicle in the United States for over 40 decades. However, the power of the F-150 brand did not extend to EVs. Only 2.5% of EV sales in the fourth quarter were F-150 Lightnings.

Is Tesla Slipping?

It is hard to gauge why Tesla has had such considerable success. Its models are not new. The Model Y was introduced in 2020, and the Model 3 was introduced in 2017. The conventional thinking in the car industry is that models must be refreshed every few years.

Among the other theories about Tesla’s sales is that CEO Elon Musk has been a U.S. business rockstar. Because of Tesla and his SpaceX rocket company, he was called the Thomas Edison of the 21st century.

Tesla faces an unprecedented car industry challenge when figures for first-quarter 2025 EV sales in the United States are released. Musk has become President Trump’s primary lieutenant and a prominent right-wing figure. There is anecdotal evidence that this has badly hurt Tesla’s U.S. sales. If his EV rivals gain market share in the U.S. this quarter, it may be because Tesla loses so many sales. GM and Ford will not care about the reason as much as their EV businesses have started to gain traction.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.