As an electric automaker and builder of sports cars and now trucks, Tesla’s competitors comprise companies like Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Lamborghini, Audi, Rivian Lucid Motors, Toyota, and more. At the same time, Tesla is an electric energy production and storage company (SolarCity); it competes with Sunrun, SunPower, and Vivint Solar. And as an autonomous driving company, it competes with companies like Zoox, Waymo, and Baidu with self-driving software.
Breaking down Tesla’s competitors
Tesla isn’t just an automaker; it is an electric-only car automaker, an electric storage company, and an autonomous driving player.
For that, we’ll have to analyze Tesla from these three perspectives.
Automaking
Within the automaking segment, Tesla has, over the years, diversified its product lines to cover different market segments.
When Tesla entered the market, as a go-to-market strategy, it had to enter it (nonetheless Elon Musk’s long-term vision to make the electric car available to the masses) with the Roadster model.

While this model is still available, this is the highest-priced model and the product Tesla used to bootstrap its operations.
Indeed, at the time, Tesla couldn’t produce a lower-cost electric car (Model 3 will finally achieve this goal), and that is how Tesla made its business model viable as it entered the new market for electric cars.
This is what I call a transitional business model:

Over the years, as the market matured, Tesla grew, an electric ecosystem was born, and the technology to enhance battery performance improved. Tesla also expanded its product lines to cover various segments.
Sport & Performance
The primary models covering these segments are:
- Roadster: here, some of the competitors are Dodge Challenger, Porsche Chiron, and Bugatti
- Model S: in this segment, Tesla competes with players like the Mercedes S-Class, BMW 7 Series, Porsche Panamera, Audi A7 & A8, and more.
Suv
The primary models covering these segments are:
- Model X: here, some of the competitors are BMW X5, Mercedes-Benz GLS-Class, Volvo XC90, and Porsche Cayenne.
- Model Y (compact SUV): in this segment, Tesla competes with Renault Zoe, Nissan LEAF, Volksvagen e-Golf, Audi e-tron, and more.
Truck
In this segment, Tesla just launched the Cybertruck:

Cybertruck’s competitors comprise Rivian, Ford, and Bollinger.
City Car
Tesla finally has its mass-market product, the Model 3. This model competes with BMW Series 2,3,4,5, Mercedes Class C, CLA, CLS, Audi A3, A4, A5, Lexus, ES, GS, and many others.
Energy Storage
Tesla acquired SolarCity back in 2016 for $2.6 billion.
With that, it competes in the electric production and storage industry with players like SunRun, SunPower, Vivint Sonar, Trinity Solar, and SolarWorld.
Autonomous driving
Tesla’s Autopilot is one of the critical ingredients of its technology and one of the most interesting future developments for the company.
In this segment, Tesla competes with other autonomous driving companies like Zoox (bought by Amazon), Waymo (an Alphabet bet), and Baidu.
Tesla, the insurance business, and non-linear competition
When assessing business competition, it’s critical to look at it, with a long-term eye.
For instance, if we look at Telsa’s insurance business, it’s interesting to notice how a small segment today has the potential to become a competitor in a legacy industry like insurance.

Therefore, if you were a legacy player like Geico, would you put Tesla on your potential (long-term) competitors’ map?
I guess not. Instead, with a non-linear approach, you know that Tesla is looking to leverage the insurance segment to sell millions of cars across the world. Given that the auto insurance business is an integral part of the overall insurance business, you get the point.
Therefore, a non-linear competition framework helps us look into how the market might evolve in the long term and place some bets on top of the existing business model to ensure we’re positioned for long-term survival and thrive!
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