Tesla gross sales are dropping like a rock in Europe based mostly on early gross sales numbers coming for January 2025. Many are linking this to dissatisfaction with CEO Elon Musk’s meddling in European politics.
Whereas there’s undoubtedly a few of that occurring, it’s not the one issue.
A number of European international locations launch automobile sale numbers on a month-to-month foundation.
Once we examine Tesla’s efficiency to the identical interval final 12 months, the American automaker is down in each single market, and it has delivered about half as many autos as final 12 months:
A number of media shops are linking this sharp decline to an analogous decline within the approval of Tesla CEO Elon Musk in those self same markets.
They’re sitting surveys that present Musk’s repute is crashing in a lot of these markets after his meddling in politics, and the impact is trickling right down to Tesla.
For instance, a survey in Sweden confirmed that solely 11% of the inhabitants had a constructive view of Tesla (by way of Retuers):
The share of Swedes having a constructive view of Tesla declined to 11% in a Novus survey performed after Trump’s inauguration from 19% in an analogous ballot performed Jan. 15-17, whereas those that mentioned they’d a unfavourable view rose to 63% from 47%, TT reported.
Whereas Elon Musk’s repute is undoubtedly affecting Tesla’s gross sales, it’s not the one issue at play right here.
Q1 is at all times tougher for Tesla as it really works to liquidate its stock in This fall to spice up its monetary efficiency on the finish of the 12 months. Tesla finally ends up having little or no stock to work with within the first quarter of yearly.
Nevertheless, that was additionally true of Q1 2023, which is the comparability above.
The opposite important issue is the just lately unveiled new Mannequin Y. Tesla is at the moment transitioning its best-selling car to the brand new design, which is affecting manufacturing and stock.
Electrek’s Take
Both means, it doesn’t look good for Tesla in Europe. 2024 was already a nasty 12 months, and now 2025 is off to a 50% decline to start out.
I’d anticipate the brand new Mannequin Y is liable for about half of that whereas Tesla’s struggling repute, largely on account of Musk, is liable for the remainder of the decline.
Europe represented 325,000 deliveries for Tesla in 2024.
The place do you suppose 2025 will likely be? I feel Tesla can be fortunate to ship 300,000 autos in Europe this 12 months.