Electric cars are more popular than ever, but Tesla is losing market share to new competitors

• Tesla's share of the US electric-vehicle market is shrinking as rivals gain momentum.
• Around 66% of new EVs registered in the US from January to June were Teslas, a big drop from 2020.

Tesla is the biggest electric-vehicle powerhouse in the US by far, but rivals are starting to eat away at its share of the market as appetite for electric cars explodes.

From January through June 2020, Tesla accounted for a staggering 79.5% of all new EVs registered in the US. During the same six months in 2021, 66.3% of new-EV registrations went to Tesla, according to Experian data published Monday.

Auto industry titans like Volkswagen, Ford, and General Motors are betting big on a future dominated by battery-powered cars, and they're plunging billions into efforts to electrify. In 2021, Audi's share of EV registrations grew to 3.3%, Ford's grew to 5.2%, and Chevrolet's increased 1.3% to hit 9.6%, according to Experian. Nissan's share rose to 3.9%.

Ford launched its first modern EV, the Mach-E SUV, in late 2020. Audi's first mass-market EV, the E-Tron SUV, went on sale in 2019, and the Volkswagen subsidiary has announced multiple new electric models since.

Tesla may be losing market share, but its sales and the EV space more broadly are growing dramatically. Tesla sold some 386,000 vehicles during the first half of 2021, more than double the number it sold during that period in 2020.

From January to June of 2021, EVs made up 2.4% of new vehicle registrations, according to Experian. That's not much, but it's more than double the same six months in 2020.

Wall Street analysts expect that Tesla will remain dominant for years, but rivals will overtake it in EV sales within the decade. Analysts at UBS said in March that Volkswagen will sell more electric models than Tesla in 2025, but Tesla will turn a bigger profit on the cars it sells.