
Tevez side-footed home Martin Petrov's cross from six yards out but Carlton Cole levelled with a neat back-heel.
Petrov, making his first league start of the season, curled a low, 25-yard free-kick into the corner of the net.
Tevez's header from Craig Bellamy's free-kick sealed victory and secured City's best league start since 1961.
The win moved City up to fifth in the Premier League, level on points with fourth-placed Tottenham and third-placed Liverpool and three points behind joint leaders Manchester United and Chelsea.
West Ham remain without a win in five matches and languishing in the bottom three.
City started brightly and could have been three goals up inside 15 minutes.
They had to settle for only one and it came after five minutes through Tevez, the former Hammers' favourite who helped lead the Londoners to Premier League survival in 2007.
Bulgarian winger Petrov found space out wide, following Gareth Barry's flick-on, and squared it to the unmarked Argentine, who from six yards out side-footed into the roof of the net for his first league goal of the season.
It was the worst possible start for the Hammers and a few moments later they were fortunate it was not worse after Tevez's neat swivel and shot flew inches wide of the post.
The striker was reaping havoc in the Hammers defence and soon after he blazed over the bar after Wayne Bridge's cross had deflected into his path.
The visitors struggled to get into the game with Mark Noble's deflected 30-yard shot, which was comfortably saved by Shay Given, their only attempt inside the opening 20 minutes.
But after Petrov's half-volley was well held by Robert Green, the Hammers shocked Eastlands with a goal against the run of play.
City failed to clear Alessandro Diamanti's floated free-kick and Kovac's shot was back-heeled into the net by striker Cole.
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The goal unsurprisingly invigorated the Hammers and soon after Cole's header from Julien Faubert's cross was neatly kept out by Given.
But just as the Hammers appeared to have taken a grip on the game, City got themselves back in front when Petrov's free-kick curled around the wall and into the bottom corner.
Soon after, Tevez found himself one-on-one with Green, but the Hammers keeper did well to narrow the angle and block the shot. From the resulting corner an unmarked Joleon Lescott headed wide as West Ham's defence again was in disarray.
A moment of controversy then followed when the visitors were denied a goal.
Scott Parker scored it, slotting in from 12 yards, but Cole was harshly penalised for an earlier foul on Lescott.
As the half reached its climax City enjoyed even more success on the wings and Green was twice called into action to keep out Bellamy's close-range header and Petrov's brilliant volley from the angle of the box.
It took until the hour for the next goal to come and Tevez was perfectly placed to expose the gaps in the visitors' defence.
The former West Ham striker found himself unmarked at the back post and accurately headed Bellamy's free-kick across goal beyond Green.
At the other end, Given was twice called into action with Diamanti testing the Irishman and James Tomkins then failed to hit the target from Diamanti's inswinging corner.
Barry could have extended the lead late on with a dipping volley that England keeper Green acrobatically tipped over the bar.
With 10 minutes remaining City introduced Roque Santa Cruz to make his debut following his arrival from Blackburn for £18m in June.
But the Paraguayan striker missed out on making the dream start to his Eastlands career when he steered Petrov's cross the wrong side of the post.
Petrov fired just wide as the Hammers defence crumbled, but it mattered little as City sealed their fifth win out of six league games this season.
Manchester City manager Mark Hughes:
"All night Carlos Tevez and Craig Bellamy were a real handful for the opposition, they couldn't handle them.
"It was hard for West Ham to stop them from having an influence because their movement and energy was outstanding.
"We executed our game plan perfectly. I think the movement and positioning of our guys, getting into good areas and causing the opposition problems was there for all to see.
"We were also able to get Roque Santa Cruz and Michael Johnson, who has been out for a long time, on at the end so they were another couple of positives on a night of positives."
West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola:
"I am not feeling well now as you can imagine.
"We didn't play in the first 45 minutes. When you play a team like City and you concede so much then it is very difficult to come back.
"I think this will be an important week for us, we will have to work hard. There are many things we need to concentrate on.
"We are much better than we are showing right now."
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