Tesla’s sales drop double digits in the US’ biggest EV market, while others are growing

Tesla’s sales have dropped by double digits in California, the most important EV market in the US, all while the rest of the EV market is growing.

California is the biggest market for electric vehicles in the US and by a wide margin. In fact, if it wasn’t for California, the US would be even further lagging behind the rest of the world in EV adoption.

For years, Tesla has been dominating the market.

While its market shares of the California EV market has been going down with competition, Tesla was still able grow its volumes in California as EV adoption is taking a hold of the market.

Now, it’s not the case anymore.

The California New Car Dealers Association (CNCDA) has released its Q4 2024 report and Tesla saw its first annual drop in sales:

Tesla saw its deliveries go down 11.6% with almost 27,000 fewer electric vehicles delivered. The automaker market share of the California EV market went down from 60% in 2023, but it still hold a majority at 52.5%.

Despite the market leader shrinking in 2024, EVs still manage to grow in California by just 1.2%.

If you remove Tesla from the equation, the California EV market (excluding Tesla) grew 20% in 2024.

EV market shares now sit at 22% in the state:

CNCDA commented on Tesla’s performance in the state:

Things aren’t looking so golden for EV automaker Tesla in the Golden State. Tesla’s dominance in the electric vehicle market continues to falter as the brand reported its fifth consecutive quarterly registration decline. Tesla’s registrations fell 7.8 percent in Q4 2024, contributing to an overall 11.6 percent decline in 2024. The company’s market share also dropped by 7.6 points in 2024, now holding 52.5 percent of the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) market for the year. Amongst all brands, Tesla’s share of California’s market is 11.6 percent, down from 13 percent in 2023.

The results are indicative of Tesla’s broader performance in 2024. The company had its first annual delivery volume decline in a decade.

Electrek’s Take

California is the most important EV market in the US and it might become even more important if the federal tax credit goes away.

The state said that it would compensate the difference in incentives at the state level to keep EV adoption going.

Tesla’s sales decline started in 2024, but that was even before Tesla CEO Elon Musk saw his reputation drop even more since Trump’s inauguration. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see sales, especially in California, crash even more in 2025. What do you think? let us know in the comment section below.