I don’t want to sound like a Tesla fan boy but the answer is simple — because they are better than the competition. It is likely the Tesla Model Y will be the best selling car in the world in 2023. I didn’t say EV, I said car.
I personally don’t have Tesla for two reasons: it is not available where I live and I want a much smaller car. I expect that is the reason lots of people have not bought a Tesla. Seriously, Tesla got there first and is doing the right thing to stay at the top of the market. The Electric Viking talks about this with a focus on the European market. In the US market the majority of EVs are Teslas. In China they sell well in spite of the competition. I expect those sales are limited by the size of the cars. Teslas are just starting to enter other Asian markets — from Korea to Thailand — and it appears that they will sell well, again limited by the size vehicle customers are looking for.
The competition isn’t over but it is clear that Tesla is still on top, it is who you have to beat. For volume manufacturers such as BYD I feel they need to get their vehicles that are different from Tesla, for example their Dolphin and Seagull models, into world markets before Tesla has something to compete with them. For other volume manufactures, like it or not, it appears that they need to move more of their production to China.
