Tesla has fallen out of the top ten of the world’s most innovative EV makers for the first time in the ranking’s ten-year history, dropping from sixth to eleventh. The Center of Automotive Management (CAM), which publishes the biannual Electromobility Report, now crowns the Geely Group as the most innovative battery-electric manufacturer.
Rivals deliver more
Back in 2016, when CAM released its first edition of the ranking, Tesla led the rest of the field. But ten years on, it has dropped out of the top ten. The American EV maker’s score rose by 3.4 index points from the previous edition, but that gain was too small to keep it ahead of the competition. Rivals simply delivered more monthly innovation.
With 207 index points, Geely, Volvo and Polestar’s parent company, has seized the top spot. Volkswagen lands just behind on 204 and BYD on 192. Mercedes-Benz takes the prize for the biggest climber, up from seventh to fourth with 147 points, followed by all-time rival BMW on 135, SAIC on 124, and then Hyundai, Renault, General Motors, and Stellantis in hierarchical order.
Customer-centric
The Electromobility Report covers innovations across three parameters it considers most decisive for buyers: range, consumption, and charging power. It has already listed 910 inventions in total from 38 manufacturer groups between 2021 and the first half of 2026. The study’s appeal is that it’s customer-centric.
The analysis isn’t about engineering creativity, but tangible and large-scale benefits. It also argues that innovation strength indicates sales.
Mercedes, for example, was heralded for delivering strong autonomy figures and bidirectional charging across its entire range. BYD has scored with the Flashcharging technology, reducing charging time to mere minutes. Likewise, Geely achieved a charge from 10 to 90% for the Lynk & Co 10 in under nine minutes. Volkswagen acclaimed points with the new, efficient e-motor APP350 which it launched on the new ID.3 Neo.
The list goes on and on, but on CAM’s evidence, Tesla’s contribution to this innovation wave is thin.
Announced slide
Tesla’s slip doesn’t come unannounced. In CAM’s January edition (covering 2021 to mid-2025), the brand had already dropped to eighth place. Its innovation score halved from 150 to 70 index points compared with the 2016-2020 period. Sales, however, paint a different picture. Tesla is rising back up the charts.
So there’s no effect yet from the innovation latency in European configurators. The study shows that technical advancements in electric mobility are increasingly a European-Chinese affair, whereas ten years ago they were American-biased.
Improving margins
Judging by Tesla’s latest financial results, its core business struggles to deliver growth. Operating income fell sharply to 56% as the company spent increasingly more on AI, robotics, and autonomous driving. However, automotive profit margins recovered. Year over year, it rose from 15.4% (Q3 2025) to 18.1% (Q3 2026). These margins remain well above the industry average.
Elon Musk’s focus doesn’t seem to shift back to rejuvenating the aging car lineup and readdressing automotive innovation as he used to. The CEO now officially endorses a merger between Tesla and SpaceX, arguing that combining the businesses could accelerate their ambitions in the three fields mentioned above: artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous technology.
But although some Wall Street analysts see a deal as increasingly likely, Musk has cautioned that an agreement is far from certain.
