When Elon Musk said Hyundai was “doing pretty well” in June, the South Korean carmaker appeared unlikely to pose a serious competitive threat to Tesla any time soon. But the latest sales figures and parallels with Apple and Samsung in the 2010s suggest the pace of change is quickening.
Hyundai Motor and affiliate Kia have taken over the number two spot, behind Tesla, in the US electric car market by sales volume this year. The duo’s market share in Europe has reached 12 per cent after making the biggest market share gains among its peers last year. Globally, excluding China, Hyundai and Kia are the second-biggest electric carmakers by shipments, with a combined 14 per cent market share. Tesla holds the top spot at 27 per cent.
The gap reflects the competitive edge Tesla has gained in the more than a decade it has held on to its leading position in the market. Tesla’s cool factor — brand studies have ranked it the “coolest” automaker among millennials — is a hard one to replicate. So are its rapid charger network, remote software updates and vast troves of data from its drivers which, coupled with machine-learning algorithms, continually improve its software.