Early car sales data for January is starting to arrive from countries across the pond, and they paint an alarming picture for Tesla. Sales are crashing in France, Germany, and the UK—all affluent countries that are key markets for Tesla’s electric vehicles. Coming on the heels of a large financial miss, it’s just one more problem for the automaker.
Tesla sales dropped around 13 percent across Europe in 2024, but so far this year, the scale of the problem is far greater. In France, sales of new Teslas fell by 63 percent, while total car sales in the country fell by just 6 percent, with EV sales dropping just half a percent.
Germany was already looking like lost ground for Tesla—its 41 percent drop in 2024 accounted for most of Tesla’s lost sales across Europe. That must make the 59 percent drop in German Tesla sales recorded during January even more painful on the profit and loss statements.
Across the Channel, the British auto industry just released its sales data for January. Here, Tesla sales fell less precipitously—just 12 percent. However, battery EV sales were 35 percent higher in the UK in January 2025 than in January 2024. The cake is growing, but Tesla is getting to eat less and less of it.
In fact, no Tesla cracked the UK’s top 10 best-seller list last month, something that has regularly happened in the past, although that may be due to having just two models for >sale in most markets.
Large declines have also been recorded in Sweden (44 percent), Norway (38 percent), and the Netherlands (42 percent).
Anyone still driving a Tesla needs a bit of verbal abuse.
Tesla ownership is its own punishment.
Sure, I’d judge someone if they bought a new one recently as well, but I think you’re being a bit unreasonable. Not everyone can afford to switch cars.
Maybe they just like the car. Not everything has to be political. Especially if they get it 2nd hand, the depreciation is huge. So someone could get a nice Tesla for great money. Doesn’t mean they like Elon or support him.
Buying 2nd hand is greener and doesn’t support him.
When the owner is that political, it becomes political though. “If 9 people sit at a table with one Nazi…” etc etc.
It does though, their most profitable (as in profit margin) businesses areas are the subscription based services and charging.
https://www.energyandcapital.com/tesla-fsd/#%3A~%3Atext=This+would+result+in+approximately%2Ca+year+from+charging+services.
I don’t know about abuse but I do judge people with Teslas purchased in the last 5 years. Before that the completion was lacking and it was less evident to most people that the CEO is a cunt, but now even if you ignore Elon, it’s just a crazy purchase when all the other manufacturers have caught up in electric and arguably produce better vehicles with less issues.
I’d be interested to see some market analysis that looks into the reasons for the sales declines. In particular, how much is driven by poor product quality versus how much is due to Musk being a knobhead.