HAMBURG — The drop is staggering: In January, there were about 60% fewer Tesla cars registered in Germany than the previous month. And this despite the fact that overall sales of electric vehicles across all brands surged by 53.5% year-on-year.
A similar trend is observable across Europe. In France, Tesla sales plummeted by 63%, in Sweden by 44%, in the Netherlands by 42%, and in Norway by 38%. The decline was more moderate in the UK, at just under 12% — but even there, total EV registrations reached an all-time high.
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Are Europeans turning away from Tesla because of CEO Elon Musk’s political engagements, particularly his new roles as financier and First Buddy of U.S. President Donald Trump?
“I bought this before Elon went crazy”
In Germany, the timing is striking: The brand started losing traction with buyers the very same month that Musk endorsed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as the country’s “last hope” and engaged in a conversation with AfD chancellor candidate Alice Weidel on his platform X.
For Martin Fassnacht, a marketing expert at the WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management, there is a clear connection: “Of course, Elon Musk as a person has an impact on sales — and a negative one at that.” Early Tesla buyers were avant-gardists who rightly saw themselves as pioneers of e-mobility. “The people Musk is addressing now are not his target audience,” Fassnacht explains. Which explains why many Tesla owners have started placing stickers on their cars reading, “I bought this before Elon went crazy,” to distance themselves from the troublesome CEO.
We saw a decline long before Musk’s political involvement.
Tesla has also seen double-digit sales declines in progressive California, even as the EV market there continues to grow. Yet it is difficult to quantify how much the image factor weighs. Stefan Reindl, from the Geislingen Institute for Automotive Economics in southern Germany, also believes that Musk’s behavior is counterproductive for his company. But this is by no means the only reason for its difficulties.
“We saw a decline in sales at Tesla last year, long before Musk’s political involvement,” Reindl says. Until mid-2023, Tesla’s models were the most sold electric cars in Germany. In the course of 2024, they slipped to third place, behind Volkswagen and BMW.
Resting on its laurels
But Musk had already interfered in sociopolitical discussions before he voiced his support for Trump in the presidential election campaign. “It started when he took over Twitter in 2022,” says Stefan Bratzel from the Center of Automotive Management in Bergisch Gladbach, western Germany. “Since then, we’ve witnessed the negative impact of his persona on the brand.” Unlike the CEOs of Mercedes or BMW, Musk as an individual plays a much stronger role — and this, particularly in Europe, may be hurting Tesla.
Yet experts point to another major factor behind Tesla’s sales slump: “The company has rested on its laurels. Its product range is outdated,” Reindl says. As an established automaker, Tesla must continuously renew itself. The first-ever update of the Model Y (Tesla’s best-selling model) is not nearly enough.
The model, produced at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Grünheide some 30 kilometers southeast of Berlin, accounts for almost 80% of the brand’s new registrations. In 2024, it was still the most registered electric car in Germany — but even then the numbers were already declining. “Tesla has already revised its original Model S several times. But at some point customers simply get tired of a model series,” Reindl says.
New competitors ahoy
Meanwhile, other automakers have caught up technologically — both in Europe and China. European manufacturers, now subject to stricter CO2 regulations, held back on launching new, more affordable models until January. Now, they are flooding the market.
Germans prefer German cars, just as the French favor French brands.
Tesla, in contrast, still lacks a compact car in its lineup. In the premium segment, BMW, Mercedes and Audi have caught up with Tesla, and therefore have a competitive edge over the tech billionaire’s cars. “The impact of national preference shouldn’t be underestimated,” Reindl says. Germans prefer German cars, just as the French favor French brands.
Still, it’s too soon to write off Tesla out as an innovation leader. Musk is already pivoting toward the future of mobility, focusing on robot taxis and shared transportation models. “Autonomous driving will be one of the most disruptive trends in the next five to 10 years,” expert Stefan Bratzel says, noting that Tesla boasts a significant advantage thanks to the vast amounts of driving data it has already collected.
The question remains: When will Musk be able to turn this lead into viable business models? “When Elon Musk makes an announcement, it can take a long time for it to materialize.” But the richest man in the world can afford to wait — even if in the meantime Tesla sales stop breaking records.