Tesla is no longer one of the ten most innovative makers of electric cars, according to the Center of Automotive Management (CAM). In the autumn edition of its Electromobility Report, published on 21 October 2026, the institute in Bergisch Gladbach ranks Tesla 11th for battery-electric innovation strength, down from sixth in CAM's May edition. It is the first time Tesla has been outside the top 10 since CAM introduced the ranking in 2016, when Tesla was first.
The ranking
CAM scored 910 series innovations from 38 carmaker groups between 2021 and the first half of 2026, electrive reports. Index points go to gains in range, energy consumption and charging power, judged within each segment, and to segment coverage and charging-ecosystem features such as bidirectional charging.
| Rank | Group | Index points | Rank in May |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Geely | 207 | 1 |
| 2 | Volkswagen Group | 204 | 2 |
| 3 | BYD | 192 | 3 |
| 4 | Mercedes-Benz | 147 | 7 |
| 5 | BMW | 135 | 5 |
| 6 | SAIC | 124 | 4 |
| 7 | Hyundai | 122 | 8 |
| 8 | Renault | 107 | 9 |
| 9 | General Motors | 86 | 10 |
| 10 | Stellantis | 83 | 11 |
| 11 | Tesla | 78 | 6 |
Scores per group are from ecomento. Toyota is 15th, Nissan 18th and Honda 22nd.
Tesla's own score did not fall. It rose by 3.4 points to 78, electrive.net writes, but other makers overtook it because they launched far more electric-car innovations. In the first half of 2026 alone, Mercedes-Benz earned about 40 points from 14 innovations and BYD about 40 from ten. Volkswagen scored 39 from 24, the most of any group. CAM's examples include BYD's 1,500 kW single-port flash charging on the Denza Z9 GT and Volkswagen's ID.3 Neo, which reaches 629 km WLTP on a 79 kWh battery. "Tesla, by contrast, is losing significant ground in the innovation race," said study director Stefan Bratzel.
What the index counts
The ranking is a count of new hardware in series cars. A maker with many brands and many launches can score in many segments at once. Tesla's line-up rests on two volume models, so it has fewer launches to score. The criteria CAM lists are range, consumption, charging power, segment coverage and the charging ecosystem. Software and driver assistance are not among them, so FSD (Supervised) is outside what it measures.
The index also does not track sales. In its May 2026 edition, CAM argued that innovation leads sales: its six most innovative electric-car makers were also the six biggest sellers in 2025 and the first quarter of 2026. Tesla now breaks that pattern. In the same report, CAM puts Tesla's global sales at 838,000 battery-electric cars, up 16% on the same period a year earlier, close behind BYD's 867,000, which are down about 15%. In Germany, battery-electric registrations rose 58.1% to 604,144 in January to September. US brands grew 129.5% to 64,819 cars, mainly thanks to Tesla, which was up 202%.
What it means for Tesla owners
Nothing changes on the road, and owners do not rate the cars the same way. A survey of 4,004 drivers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland ranked Tesla second for owner satisfaction on 20 October. What the ranking shows is narrower: rivals have closed, segment by segment, the gaps in range, charging speed and efficiency that Tesla once led. In January 2026, Bratzel himself called innovation strength "a necessary but not sufficient" factor for market success, adding that the price must also be competitive. The Model Y and Model 3 were Europe's two best-selling cars in September.