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Tesla’s new customers come from Toyota, Honda most frequently: study

Tesla Model S Plaid Coming to China

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Research published by S&P Global Mobility has identified which brands consumers are leaving when they buy a new Tesla.

Tesla has become notorious for taking the sales of other notable brands as customers look to switch to electric vehicles. Now, data has been published showing which brands are losing the most customers to Tesla. S&P Global Mobility found, most notably, that over a quarter of Tesla buyers were coming from either Toyota or Honda.

Specifically, S&P’s report found that 28.6% of customers came from either Toyota (15.3%) or Honda (13.3%). Roughly another 17% were coming from German luxury brands; BMW (6.7%), Mercedes-Benz (6.2%), and Audi (4.4%). Fewer customers came from domestic brands like Ford (5.4%) and Chevrolet (4.7%).

tesla conquests s&p global mobility

Tesla Conquests – Credit: S&P Global Mobility

The effect of legacy brands losing customers to Tesla is perhaps most visible in the luxury segment, where the researchers found that Tesla controls 86% of the EV market. The next closest competitors were Audi (3%), Rivian (2%), and Polestar (2%). Combined, these four brands account for over 93% of luxury EV sales in the U.S.

ev registrations 2022

Credit: S&P Global Mobility

Customers leaving gas vehicles were found to most often buy a Tesla Model Y or Tesla Model 3. The survey also found that the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Hyundai Ioniq 5, and Chevy Bolt were popular options.

A couple of factors attributed to why customers left certain brands more than others. First of all, a lack of electric options had an apparent effect on results. Brands like Ford, Chevy, and Hyundai/Kia, which have EV offerings, had a clear leg up on competitors who had no electric offerings; Honda, Toyota, and Lexus. S&P also noted that those who offered cheaper electric offerings were ahead of those who did not.

Sadly, survey results indicating why customers left the brands they did were not present. Furthermore, no data indicated what percent of customers leaving a given brand chose Tesla instead of other options.

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Another surprising result was regarding overall market share. Tesla controls 65% of the electric vehicle market in the United States, but that has shrunk from 79% in 2020. While the researchers pointed out that the simple growth of the EV market and the growing number of consumer options have contributed to this, another notable segment where Tesla has lost its footing is affordable electric vehicles. The segment is now led by Ford (28%), Kia (19%), Hyundai (16%), and Chevrolet (16%).

The research shows that Tesla continues to dominate the U.S. market, and brands should take note of the rapidly growing disparity between the brands with and without electric vehicle offerings. As S&P Global Mobility indicates in its conclusion, the growing market for electric vehicles will quickly determine the successful and unsuccessful automotive brands. Only time will tell if legacy brands will take notice.

What do you think of the article? Do you have any comments, questions, or concerns? Shoot me an email at william@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @WilliamWritin. If you have news tips, email us at tips@teslarati.com!

Will is an auto enthusiast, a gear head, and an EV enthusiast above all. From racing, to industry data, to the most advanced EV tech on earth, he now covers it at Teslarati.

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Tesla Robotaxi to expand Austin coverage, Bay Area launch targeted in coming months

Tesla is looking at the San Francisco Bay Area as the next location for its Robotaxi service.

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Credit: @AdanGuajardo/X

Tesla is preparing to expand its Robotaxi pilot program in Austin, Texas, with the self-driving service set to cover a larger portion of the city this weekend. The CEO shared the update in a post on social media platform X, where he also noted that the company is currently looking at the San Francisco Bay Area as the location for Tesla’s next Robotaxi pilot.

Tesla’s growing Robotaxi pilot

Tesla’s Robotaxi service first launched in Austin last month as a test program. While the vehicles operate without a human in the driver’s seat, a Tesla employee currently rides in the front passenger seat to monitor vehicle performance. Responses to Tesla’s Robotaxi pilot are quite positive, with some users praising the vehicles for their smooth and comfortable rides.

In a later post on X, Musk also stated that Tesla is in the process of seeking regulatory approval to begin operating robotaxis in the Bay Area, adding that a launch there could happen within “a month or two.” The California expansion would be a notable milestone for Tesla, considering its roots in the state.

Robotaxi is key to Tesla’s long-term growth

Autonomous driving remains central to Tesla’s long-term vision. Musk has consistently framed Robotaxis as a future driver of profitability and growth, particularly as EV sales face headwinds across multiple regions. In a way, the expansion of Tesla’s autonomous fleet is expected to play a critical role in differentiating the company’s offerings in a crowded electric vehicle market.

Tesla has yet to specify when the Robotaxi service will transition out of its testing phase or how it plans to monetize the platform, as the company is only charging a flat fee of $4.20 per ride in its Austin pilot program today. However, its growing geographic footprint suggests the company is steadily progressing toward wider deployment.

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xAI launches Grok 4 with new $300/month SuperGrok Heavy subscription

xAI also introduced SuperGrok Heavy, which is priced at $300 per month.

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Credit: xAI/X

xAI, the artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk, has officially launched its latest flagship models, Grok 4 and Grok 4 Heavy. Alongside the release, the company introduced its most premium subscription tier to date, SuperGrok Heavy, which is priced at $300 per month and targeted at power users and developers.

Grok 4 is designed to compete with top-tier AI models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. As per xAI, Grok 4 demonstrates frontier-level performance across several benchmark evaluations. 

On Humanity’s Last Exam, an extensive test designed to evaluate general knowledge, Grok 4 scored 25.4% without using external tools, outperforming OpenAI’s o3 (high), which scored 21%, and Gemini 2.5 Pro, which scored 21.6%. 

When equipped with tools, Grok 4 Heavy scored 44.4%, making it the top-performing model in that category. For context, Gemini 2.5 Pro with tools scored 26.9%, as noted in a TechCrunch report.

xAI also highlighted Grok 4 Heavy’s “multi-agent” system, which enables multiple instances of the model to solve a problem in parallel and compare answers, similar to a study group. This collaborative approach is intended to improve both reasoning and accuracy in complex tasks.

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The company also shared results from the ARC-AGI-2 benchmark, where Grok (Thinking) achieved new state of the art (SOTA) score on the test with 15.9%. As per Arc Prize in a post on X, this score is “nearly double(s) the previous commercial SOTA and tops the current Kaggle competition SOTA.”

The $300/month SuperGrok Heavy plan grants users early access to Grok 4 Heavy, as well as upcoming product features. Upcoming capabilities that are planned for release in the coming months include an AI coding model in August, a multi-modal agent in September, and a video generation system in October.

Grok 4 and Grok 4 Heavy are available via API as part of xAI’s push to engage developers and enterprise users. The company’s enterprise platform, which launched just two months ago, will also expand via partnerships with cloud hyperscalers to bring Grok models to broader infrastructure environments.

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EVs getting cleaner more quickly than expected in Europe: study

Battery-electric vehicles are still championing emissions reductions, and a new analysis suggests they’re doing so even more quickly than previously expected.

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Credit: Tesla

As Europe’s electricity mix is getting cleaner, battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) are also offering a larger climate advantage than previously expected, according to the results of a new study released this week.

On Wednesday, the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) released a study noting that BEVs sold today produce 73 percent fewer life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, even factoring in production. This figure also represents a 24-percent improvement upon the organization’s 2021 estimates for this year, meaning that BEVs are getting cleaner more quickly than expected as the continent’s renewable programs continue to grow.

The study was comprised of a comprehensive life-cycle analysis of all major powertrain types, and the results suggest that BEVs are the only widely available powertrain that can slash emissions levels enough to meet climate goals. By contrast, the study’s results suggest that other clean energy powertrains, such as hybrids and plugin hybrids, only have a marginal impact, if any, on reducing the overall climate impact of the transportation sector.

“Battery electric cars in Europe are getting cleaner faster than we expected and outperform all other technologies, including hybrids and plug-in hybrids,” says ICCT researcher Dr. Marta Negri. “This progress is largely due to the fast deployment of renewable electricity across the continent and the greater energy efficiency of battery electric cars.”

Credit: International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT)

READ MORE ON ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Study reveals hybrids could have up to 4.9x lifetime emissions vs. BEVs

ICCT Senior Researcher Dr. Georg Bieker says he also hopes the analysis can help fight misinformation regarding BEV powertrains. For example, he notes that, while it’s true that manufacturing emissions for BEVs can be up to 40 percent higher than for ICE vehicles, this is quickly offset by an electric automobile after just around 17,000 km (~10,563 miles) of driving.

“We hope this study brings clarity to the public conversation, so that policymakers and industry leaders can make informed decisions,” Dr. Bieker says. “We’ve recently seen auto industry leaders misrepresenting the emissions math on hybrids. But life-cycle analysis is not a choose-your-own-adventure exercise.”

Additionally, the ICCT study covers emissions from both vehicle and battery production, recycling, fuel and electricity production, fuel consumption, and maintenance.

“Our study accounts for the most representative use cases and is grounded in real-world data,” Dr. Bieker adds. “Consumers deserve accurate, science-backed information.”

U.S. EV adoption still on pace to reach 50% by 2030: data

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