[clouddrover]

Those are US figures. The North American EV market is about one third the size of the European market.

Here are some current European sales percentages:

https://eu-evs.com/marketShare/ALL/Groups/Line/All-time-by-Y...

Tesla comes in 4th.

[darkwater]

But it's trending up, and they cost 10k more than the most similar VW model (and the difference is worth). But Tesla is totally the Apple of cars where VW is the Samsung.

[clouddrover]

I think you're looking at the wrong line. Tesla was at 30.77% in 2019, 13.28% in 2020, 13.78% in 2021, and so far in 2022 Tesla is 11.95% of the European EV market.

[darkwater]

I was looking at the trend over years, Tesla was high, then low, then it's trending up again. VW is trending down. Nissan was #1 by a massive margin and it's going down into oblivion almost

[clouddrover]

Eh, no. Tesla has trended down in market share over the five years since 2017.

[darkwater]

Ooops, sorry, switched the greens with Hyundai/Kia

[ZeroGravitas]

And its probably fair to attribute the difference to better governance in the EU, so the top down approach that worked for Tesla wasn't as necessary.

Still useful to have someone targetting Silicon Valley nerds that would otherwise own a Prius and a Porsche though.

[rsynnott]

Eh, I'm not sure that's true, really. Europe has been a bit more proactive (and consistent) in encouraging electric cars than the US has, but I think a lot of it comes down to market differences:

- Fuel in Europe is on the order of 2x the price vs the US (largely due to low tax on petrol in the US)

- Average European journey in nearly all countries is much shorter than average journey in the US (things are closer together, less cultural tolerance for very long commutes)

- Differing consumer preferences in cars (the US _loves_ large SUVs and pickup trucks, which pose greater challenges to electrification than, say, hatchbacks)

- Electric cars are or at least were a cultural/political issue in the US in a way they're not in Europe. It would be deeply weird to be ideologically opposed to, specifically, electric cars in Europe, but that's quite common in the US.

All of this makes Europe an easier-to-address and safer market for the manufacturers than the US, so they targeted the US _first_. That doesn't mean they weren't interested in the US too. For instance, VW sensibly never released its eUp or eGolf in the US, because there's a tiny market for cars like that there. It also won't release its i3, but it will release its i4, which suits US consumer preferences better.

Incidentally, I think the US does have some _advantages_ as a market for electric cars, too. In particular, it's much more common to have a driveway or garage in the US than in Europe, and this makes at-home charging much easier.