Two years ago, car leasing group Octopus EV could barely keep up with the red-hot demand for Teslas that accounted for half its sales.
“Tesla had the market to themselves,” said Fiona Howarth, chief executive of Octopus EV, which has operations in the UK and US. Now the carmaker has “lost some of its competitive advantage”.
The scale of Tesla’s challenge was laid bare this week when its first-quarter sales fell short of the gloomiest Wall Street forecast. Threats are coming from multiple angles: cheaper Chinese brands such as BYD and MG, faltering demand in China and the US, its two key markets, and even the polarising personality of Elon Musk.