Falling sales, rising market share: Tesla’s mixed Q1
In the first quarter of 2026, Tesla recorded a sharp drop in U.S. sales, marking its third consecutive year of declining first-quarter results.
The last time the company saw growth in both Q1 and full-year U.S. sales was in 2023, with performance trending downward since then aside from a few exceptions, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
The Texas-based automaker sold 117,300 vehicles in the United States during the first three months of the year, according to estimates from Cox Automotive. This represents Tesla’s lowest quarterly sales figure since late 2021 and an 8.4% decline compared to the same period last year. Notably, the first quarter of 2025 had already been a weak benchmark, as Tesla posted its poorest results in two years during that time.
However, the broader U.S. electric vehicle market experienced an even steeper downturn, which helped strengthen Tesla’s relative position. Overall, automakers sold 216,399 EVs in the U.S. between January and March, a 27% drop year over year, according to Cox Automotive.
Sales of non-Tesla electric vehicles fell significantly—by 41%—based on an analysis of Cox’s data by InsideEVs. Despite its own decline, Tesla maintained its position as the leading EV seller in the U.S., with its market share rising from 43.2% to 54.2% compared to a year earlier.
The expiration of federal tax credits last September and the end of regulations driving clean-car sales have hit the reset button on the U.S. EV industry. Automakers have since scaled back their EV ambitions, reallocating those resources towards combustion engine models and hybrids. Companies are also canceling models left and right.
Tesla isn't immune to the broader headwinds. But company-specific troubles have compounded the effect. Elon Musk has pivoted hard toward AI and robotics, with Tesla's core passenger-vehicle business taking a back seat. Tesla has not released a new model since the Cybertruck came out in late 2023.
Still, the shakeout has allowed Tesla to capture a larger share of the smaller total market. For years, the EV pioneer's dominant position gradually eroded as rivals piled in and the pie grew. Now the trend has reversed.
While a rush to claim the EV tax credit before it expired on September 30 created a boom-and-bust cycle for the entire car industry, Tesla's sales weren't nearly as volatile. From Q3 to Q4 of 2025, non-Tesla EV sales in the U.S. cratered by some 63%. Tesla sales dropped too, but only by 23%, boosting its slice of the EV market to over half for the first time since early 2024.
The Cybertruck's Q1 drop was even worse, albeit from a much lower baseline. The truck saw a 45% year-over-year decline and just 3,513 sales. Tesla once planned to sell more than 250,000 units annually, but the wedge-shaped stainless steel truck has turned out to be an epic flop—with a small group of dedicated fans. Sales Model S and Model X, which have now been discontinued, also fell sharply in Q1, but they have not contributed meaningfully to Tesla's sales for quite some time.
News.Az
By Nijat Babayev
