Tesla is leading the global market again with sales of its Model 3 and Model Y EVs, our friend and regular CleanTechnica contributor José Pontes writes. The Model 3’s sales exceeded those of the Wuling Mini EV in February, which held the top spot in January. The Wuling Mini EV has more sales in the first two months of the year combined, but the Tesla Model 3 is sure to pass it up when the March figures come in.

Sales figures show that Tesla sold over 73,000 vehicles in January and February, which exceeded the figure from the same period in 2020 by around 50,000 vehicles.

José also pointed out that registrations for all EVs (plugin hybrids included) were up 136% from last month to around 270,000 units. Battery electric vehicles jumped 139%, which is a great thing considering that February is normally the lowest volume month.

As of February, the top ten global EV brands in 2021 are as follows:

Tesla’s sales of 42,679 units in February is what put it back in the number one spot. Combined with SGMW, the two brands have almost a quarter of the global EV market (23%).

As we reported earlier today, Tesla’s Q1 and full 2021 delivery forecast are looking quite bullish — 165,100 deliveries in the quarter and 816,000 for the year. Those are sharp increases from the ~73,000 José tracked in the first two months of the year.

A couple of Chinese upstarts are often touted or seen as the potential “next Teslas” — to some extent. The South China Morning Post noted that although NIO and Xpeng reported five fold increases in first-quarter sales from a year ago, these companies are still facing an uphill battle to catch up to Tesla.

“Strong sales are within expectations, but the Chinese carmakers need to aim high because Tesla remains the dominant player in the premium EV segment,” Gao Shen, an independent analyst of manufacturing in Shanghai, said. “Conventional carmakers’ new models to hit the market this year will also add pressure on the Chinese companies.”

These potential rivals are still lagging well behind on their home turf, which happens to be the world’s largest EV market. Tesla is selling more EVs in a single month than most of its Chinese challengers are managing in a quarter, the article stated.

What does the future of the global EV market hold? We’ll see.