The big guns in the auto industry are coming for Tesla's number one spot in electric vehicles, warns one long-time auto analyst.
And they could succeed in the not too distant future.
"We expect Tesla's market share to drop from about 70% in EVs to about 20% in the next three years. They [Ford and General Motors] are gaining the bulk of the market share we expect Tesla to lose," said Bank of America auto analyst John Murphy on Yahoo Finance Live.
While Tesla recently capped off an impressive year of performance, signs have emerged that its market share is slipping as rivals pick up the pace on EVs.
Tesla held 66.3% of EV registrations in the second quarter of this year, lower than the 79.5% it held one year ago, according to the most recent data from Experian. GM-owned Chevrolet saw its share of EV registrations rise to 9.6% from 8.3% a year earlier. Ford, Nissan and Audi also picked up market share in the EV industry, per Experian's data.
The pressure could continue this year if fresh commentary from Ford and GM are any indication.
"We have about 200,000 reservations [for the F-150 Lightning]. Now we're converting those into orders where people have to physically order the vehicle, almost very few of them are falling out," Ford CEO Jim Farley told Yahoo Finance Live last week.
Farley added he would like to reach electric vehicle capacity of 600,000 units over the next 22 months.
"We think that'll put us probably number two in electric," Farley said.
Meanwhile, General Motors this week struck an upbeat note on demand for its first electric pickup truck.
"More than 110,000 Silverado EVs are reserved so far, including reservations from more than 240 fleet operators, and the numbers keep growing every day," GM CEO Mary Barra said on an earnings call.
Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.
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