Tesla (TSLA) has had quite a turbulent year with CEO Elon Musk making controversial statements, recalling millions of EVs, and dealing with labor strikes abroad. The automaker may continue to see turbulence as its Model 3 Rea-Wheel Drive and Model 3 Long Range will lose previously held tax incentives for the vehicle at the end of the year. Will Tesla be able to turn it around or will a competitor take the top position for EVs?

iSeeCars.com Executive Analyst Karl Brauer joins Yahoo Finance to discuss Tesla and how it may perform in 2024 versus its competition.

"Ford (F) is pretty well positioned right now. GM (GM) needs to be building more cars, they keep launching cars but not really building them, and then I feel like the Koreans are building some of the best EVs on the market right now, but they don't get the incentive either unless you lease," Brauer says. "I don't really see any obvious benefits for any companies. Every one of them is facing some challenges. You've got incentives issues, market issues, you've got pricing issues, macroeconomic factors slowing down the purchase of electric vehicles."

Follow along with Yahoo Finance's 2024 Investor Guide for more expert insight, or click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Video Transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: With that said, though, affordability has been a big issue in terms of adoption. Tesla, a lot more affordable with that $7,500 tax credit. We just showed the market share. 56.5% is what Tesla has right now.

How does that shift without those incentives? Who do you think is likely to become a bigger player in 2024?

KARL BRAUER: I think Ford is pretty well positioned right now. GM needs to be building more cars. They keep launching cars but not really building them. And then I feel like the Koreans are building some of the best EVs on the market right now. But they don't get the incentive either unless you lease.

So it's actually-- I don't really see any obvious benefits for any companies. Every one of them is facing some challenges. You've got incentives issues. You've got market issues. You've got pricing issues, macroeconomic factors that are slowing down the purchase of electric vehicles.

I don't know. It's hard for me to think who would jump into any vacuum created by Tesla. But I would argue that we've seen Tesla's share. You're saying it's about 56%. They're down about half the market.

And of course, they were the overwhelmingly dominant player just a few years ago. Every day, every month, every year, we see more cars entering this marketplace, making them less dominant.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: And, Karl, as we increasingly look at Tesla, almost more so as a tech company than a car company here, what does that mean in terms of expectations for next year and how it's positioning itself?

KARL BRAUER: Well, you know, they've got the Cybertruck coming, which a lot of people would love to think is going to tab into this highly profitable, massive volume truck market that Ford and Chevrolet and Dodge Ram have been benefiting from for decades. I don't know if that's really going to work because the truck is very expensive, and it looks like it's not very profitable for them.

And it looks like they're going to take a while to ramp production. So I feel like they're not going to just be this natural. Plus, we've seen a lot of people in the truck market pull back on buying these trucks. When they started using them as real trucks, they didn't seem as attractive.

What I would say is Tesla's ace in the hole or ace in the PowerPoint maybe is the Supercharger network. That was a brilliant move for Elon to invest in that.

Now, we're seeing all the other car companies transition to the plug type that he's got in that Supercharger network. And he's starting to open it up to other companies and other cars. He could end up with quite the subscription model if he becomes the dominant player in the infrastructure and power supply field.

AKIKO FUJITA: Karl, how do you think this recent recall for Tesla affects the brand's reputation?

KARL BRAUER: You know, recalls are interesting. They cause a big, big news headlines when they first happen. And they're pretty much forgotten, sometimes between hours or days later.

This one particularly, it's going to be done mostly through over-the-air updates, while people are sleeping at night. It's a lot of cars. But it's also going to be pretty easy to roll out.

And there's been issues with his assisted driving technology undeniably. But there isn't any massive event that was tied to this one-- single one event that was tied to this issue. So the bottom line is like so many recalls, it'll cause a lot of news initially. And it'll be forgotten fairly quickly.