No, that's not what happened.
According to
Cox Automotive:-
If Musk 'put a fork into' Tesla's EV sales (which were actually 8%
higher in Q3 this year than last year), who put the fork into Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and Nissan?
The real reason Tesla has been losing market share is:-
This was entirely predictable. It was Musk's goal from the start. He even said he would be happy to go bankrupt if that's what it took to make the auto industry transition to EVs. They still have a way to go though, as Tesla still dominates with a 41% share of the US market in Q3 2025. Both Ford and GM promised they would be selling more EVs than Tesla by now, and by rights they should be. In reality they aren't even close. One wonders what they are doing so wrong to not achieve their goals.
As for Toyota - the world's largest car maker - they couldn't even make an EV that the wheels didn't
literally fall off of. Now they are just slapping their badge on Chinese made EVs, while they continue to pour money down the drain on Hydrogen (to be fair, they are apparently building a factory of their own in China, planning to start production of Lexus branded EVs in 2027. But even that will really be a Chinese operation).
As to whether Trump had a hand in reducing Tesla's market share, we will have to wait and see what effect tariffs and removing the EV tax credit have. All EV manufacturers are being affected by it, and are changing their plans to deal with it. So the question is who will be affected the most. By the end of next year we should have some idea.
Unless the others continue screwing it up, Tesla should lose more market share next year too. But that isn't a bad thing. Tesla has achieved Musk's goal of kickstarting the EV industry, and is now moving on to other things. However they will continue making cars, just like IBM continued making PCs after the clones took over (until selling their PC divison to Chinese firm Lenovo in 2005).
Today Tesla announced that the Cybercab will be capable of having a steering wheel and pedals added. I predict they
will do this because otherwise they won't get the production quantities they need to make the Cybercab affordable. The potential market for a small 'low cost' (US$25,000) EV is enormous, especially if it has autonomous driving (even if only 'supervised'). Other car makers had better have something similar ready for production next year if they want to beat Tesla.
