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German Electric Cars Could Catch Up With Tesla in Just a Few Years

Electric-car pioneer Tesla Inc. no longer has the road to itself.

German Electric Cars Could Catch Up With Tesla in Just a Few Years
Matthias Mueller, chief executive officers of Volkswagen AG (VW), stands for a photograph beside a VW Sedric concept electric autonomous robo-taxi. (Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Electric-car pioneer Tesla Inc. no longer has the road to itself.

German carmakers Daimler AG, BMW AG and Volkswagen AG are closing in and may pass their American rival by 2021, based on a consultancy’s ranking of electric automakers that factors strategy, battery technology, culture, supplier networks, partnerships and financial performance into an overall score.

German Electric Cars Could Catch Up With Tesla in Just a Few Years

Tesla will remain No. 1 in 2019, according to the forecast by PA Consulting Group. But by 2021, when traditional rivals flood the road with a variety of models, Elon Musk’s company will fall to seventh place. By then, Daimler will be in the lead, followed by BMW, the Renault Nissan Mitsubishi alliance and VW.

Production issues with the Model 3 and an uncertain profit outlook were factors in the lower ranking for Palo Alto, California-based Tesla, PA Consulting said.

“Achieving CO2 targets and improving e-mobility performance go hand in hand,” Thomas Göttle, head of PA Consulting’s automotive business, said in a statement. “For the manufacturers, however, this also involves great need for action in terms of organization and personnel.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Leonard Kehnscherper in Frankfurt at lkehnscherpe@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tom Contiliano at tcontiliano@bloomberg.net, Anthony Palazzo, Jamie Butters

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.