> Tesla mostly focused on the American market anyway.

Not true at all. In 2023, before the brand became toxic, they sold more cars outside the US than internally. They were a huge percentage of the market in parts of Europe, especially Scandinavia. There was a lot of noise about the manufacturing centres in Germany as Tesla fought around labour laws and traditions, too.

They also bet big on China where they almost got to the point where they were selling as many cars as in the USA. Elon fell hook, line, and sinker for the classic Chinese government move to invite them into the market and then steal the tech and flood the market with domestic brands (this is not to say that they haven't improved on it, though).

The Chinese government didn't steal the tech, CATL/BYD are more advanced than Panasonic/Tesla.

China learned how to make cars from European and US companies producing ICE vehicles, but the battery tech is more home grown.

They also invested heavily in robotics and manufacturing supply chains.

Korea has also invested into EV on top of their already big ICE vehicle manufacturing base.