Against the backdrop of an ongoing electric vehicle price war which saw Tesla (TSLA) -) slash its prices by around 25% year over year, the EV leader's third-quarter sales surged close to 20% compared to the year-ago period. Despite this, Tesla's consistently dominant share of the EV market continues to shrink, according to a new report by Cox Automotive.
As other automakers have raced to be competitive in the EV market, with BMW (BMWYY) -) and Mercedes (DDAIF) -) EV sales more than triple last year's numbers, Tesla's share of the market dropped to a record low of 50% in the third quarter.
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In the first quarter of the year, Tesla possessed a 62% share of the market.
This comes as total EV sales for the quarter hit record levels, exceeding 300,000 — a nearly 50% year-over-year increase — for the first time in the U.S. market, according to the report.
The EV market, Cox said, is "transforming," as 14 brand new EV models entered the fray in the third quarter, helping total EV sales to make up a nearly 8% share of total industry sales, another record.
"Higher inventory levels, more product availability and downward pricing pressure have helped spur continued linear growth of EV sales in the U.S. market," Cox said. "EV sales have now increased for 13 straight quarters."
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With analysts expecting much more EV growth in the coming years, U.S. EV sales are still on track to surpass one million for the year; in 2020, total U.S. EV sales capped out at around 250,000.
Shares of Tesla, stabilizing slightly toward the end of the day Oct. 12, closed down more than 1.5%, a downward trend that continued in pre-market trading. Though Tesla remains up around 110% for the year, the company's stock pulled back in September, falling close to 14% for the month.
On Oct. 2, Tesla reported quarterly deliveries of 435,000 vehicles, below Wall Street expectations of 455,000. The company is still anticipating a volume of 1.8 million vehicles for the year.
Tesla will report third-quarter earnings Oct. 18.
