American EV giant Tesla Motors reigns supreme in the realm of electric vehicles (EVs), but it recently sent shockwaves through the entire automotive industry by confirming that its sales declined for the first time since 2020. In February this year, the latest for which car registration data is available, Tesla experienced a steep year-over-year decline of 25 per cent in the number of new registrations of its EVs. Tesla’s decline made the entire EV segment’s new registrations in the United States to fall by 2.8 per cent year-over-year. Last time, such a decline was recorded in August 2020, when the EV giant’s new car registrations had fallen by slightly more than 2 per cent.

What is more surprising is that all other electric car makers in the United States, including Ford, Hyundai, Rivian, BMW and Kia, enjoyed consistent jumps in their sales the month under review. To be more specific, Ford’s new EV registrations increased 84 per cent in February 2024 compared to the corresponding month of 2023, with a total of 7,656 car registrations. South Korean car brand Hyundai saw its registrations soaring by 54 per cent, hitting 3,822 units. Kia enjoyed a jump of 58 per cent in registrations, reaching a total of 3,722 units. BMW recorded an increase of 166 per cent to registration of 3,559 units. Rivian recorded 3,251 new registrations, up 56 per cent year-over-year.

Collectively, all the above-mentioned five automobile manufacturers, got a total of 22,010 new EV registered in the month under review. It means Tesla continued to outshine all of its rivals, despite a considerable decline in new EV registrations in February. Tesla alone accounted for a total of 36,697 new registrations in February in the United States. Total number of EV registrations for the month amounted to 78,361 units. This figure marked the EV share of the light-vehicle market in the country to drop from 7 per cent in February 2023 to 6.2 per cent in the same month this year.

The steep fall in Tesla’s EV registrations in February was mainly driven by the poor performance of the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y. While the brand’s entry-level Model 3 EV saw a decline of 73 per cent, the Model Y saw registration figure tumbling by 6.7 per cent, underscoring the unanticipated challenges faced by the brand’s widely-popular models.