Former Democrat Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama tried their best to get Americans interested in electric vehicles by offering generous tax credits and cash to get old clunkers off the road and replace them with more energy-efficient transportation.
While the $7,500 tax credit enacted under Biden is set to expire in September, the program has been relatively successful.
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U.S. automakers sold 300,000 new electric vehicles in the first quarter, an 11.4% year-over-year increase, according to data from Kelley Blue Book.
But while overall EV sales are increasing, Tesla's market share is decreasing due to increased competition.
Tesla sales in the U.S. peaked in spring 2023 when it sold 173,000 EVs, according to Cox Automotive data. The company sold just 128,000 in Q1 2025, a 26% decline from its peak, taking its overall U.S. market share down from 5% to 3%.
(Sales differ from deliveries. Deliveries involve the physical transaction of a vehicle to its owner, while sales involve the financial transaction. Tesla delivered 336,681 vehicles in Q1 2025, a 13% year-over-year decline.)
But as rough as Tesla's last few months have been in the U.S., it is facing a similar road ahead in China due to many of the same obstacles.
Tesla Full Self-Driving isn't enough to drive sales in China
A dramatic technological jump, government incentives for domestic EV makers, and an extremely competitive pricing environment have made Tesla's ride in China rough.
The American EV maker had an impressive 20% market share in China, a country not known for being very welcoming to large American tech companies.
But over the last five years, its market share has cratered to 5.1% as China's EV and hybrid market has grown into the world's largest.
Related: Toyota makes surprising move to beat Tesla in key market
Of the 2.1 million passenger vehicles sold in China in June, 52.7% were new energy vehicles, the highest percentage so far this year.
While domestic EV powerhouse BYD saw sales growth slow, it still reported an 11% sales increase, down from 14% growth in May.
Geely Auto, the only other profitable listed Chinese EV maker, raised its 2025 sales target by 11% to 3 million units.
Despite the name being a misnomer, Full Self-Driving technology has been one of Tesla's best selling points. But Chinese competitors have caught up to the company, and now BYD is betting its money on the performance of its assistant driver tech.
BYD to pay for any accidents caused by its new Level 4 driver assistance tech
On Wednesday, BYD debuted a smart parking feature that allows the vehicle to achieve Level 4 autonomy.
Level 4 autonomy, as defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers, is the highest available level of autonomy. In layman's terms, BYD vehicles equipped with the highest assisted driving packages will be able to park themselves.
With this breakthrough for God's Eye, BYD's assisted driving platform, BYD becomes the first automaker to achieve this level of automation, calling this launch “the largest-scale smart driving OTA in history” on Chinese social media microblogging site Weibo.
BYD offers God's Eye in three tiers: A, B, and C.
The A level is usually reserved for its most luxurious brand, Yangwang, and offers the most automation. B is for other luxury brands, and God's Eye C system is used for the rest of the companies.
Earlier this year, BYD upgraded 21 of its best-selling vehicles with God's Eye free of charge.
But most interestingly, regarding the latest upgrade, BYD promises to pay for any accidents caused by autonomous parking.
Rather than going through their insurance companies, BYD drivers using the tech can file a claim with BYD's after-sales team if something goes wrong.
“BYD is the first to achieve L4-level smart parking, and the official promise is to provide a safety guarantee,” the company said, according to Electrek.
All levels of God's Eye can get the over-the-air software upgrade.
Related: Forget tariffs, automakers face an even bigger threat from China
