Despite an ongoing boom in demand for low-carbon vehicles, Tesla‘s sales continue to plummet due to a mix of increasingly stiff competition from others in the electric vehicle, or EV, space, as well as the actions of its CEO, Elon Musk, whose preoccupation with politics has alienated some buyers and unsettled investors.
Newsweek contacted Tesla via email outside of business hours for comment.
Why It Matters
Successive reports of sluggish sales have significantly impacted the company’s stock price, which has fallen some 28 percent over the past month. This decline is nearing the point of offsetting the postelection rally, which propelled Tesla to all-time highs in mid-December, and which is largely to thank for the company’s 18-percent increase over the past six months.
Why Are Tesla Sales Dropping?
Analysts have pointed to the role of Tesla’s CEO in the company’s declining sales and weak stock performance.
Musk’s deep involvement in President Donald Trump’s administration and the waste-elimination efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), as well as his forays into the European political scene, have been credited with alienating some of the company’s core customer base and sparking protests at Tesla factories and dealerships.
However, underlying issues besides Musk have weakened the demand for Tesla, such as increased competition from legacy carmakers who have now entered the EV space, as well as strengthening foreign competition from EV specialists such as BYD in China.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
Where Are Tesla Sales Falling the Most?
From the huge European market to the Far East, where competitors from countries such as China are making life difficult for Tesla, Newsweek looks at some of the countries and regions where Musk’s company has been hit hardest.
Australia
Data from the country’s Electric Vehicle Council found that Tesla recorded just 1,592 electric vehicle sales in February. While nearly double the deliveries recorded in January (739), the figure has fallen from 5,665 in February of last year, a 72-percent drop.
As auto-focused outlet The Driven noted, the successively weak months mean Tesla sales in Australia are down nearly 66 percent in the year so far compared to 2024.
Unlike other markets where electric vehicle sales besides Tesla are booming, the Australian dip comes amid a wider downturn in the country’s EV market. According to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, total battery electric vehicle sales comprised just 5.9 percent of the total, compared to 9.6 percent in February of last year.
Europe
According to recent data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, Tesla sales across the European Union, European Free Trade Association, and the United Kingdom declined to 9,945 in February from 18,161 in January 2024.
This 45-percent decrease, along with a reduction in market share from 1.8 percent to 1 percent, occurred despite battery electric vehicle sales rising by 34 percent over the same period.
Germany
In Germany, where Musk has made headlines for supporting the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, and where his salute at Trump‘s inauguration has been met with significant criticism, sales have similarly fallen.
According to the Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt, the country’s motor transport authority, in February, just 1,429 Tesla vehicles were registered in Germany, representing a 76 percent decline compared to the same month last year.
Spain
According to EV-focused publication Electrek, one of the sharpest declines on the continent has been in Spain, where sales in January dropped 75 percent to 269 from 1,094 a year prior.
China
Preliminary data from China’s Passenger Car Association shows that Tesla sold 30,688 vehicles made in the country in February, marking a 49-percent decline from the same month last year. In contrast, regional rival BYD reported wholesale sales—covering both domestic and exported vehicles—of 318,233 units, a 161-percent increase year-over-year.
Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Steve Man attributed the decline in China-made Tesla sales to production line suspensions in Shanghai, suggesting that without these disruptions, the drop in shipments would have been significantly smaller.
Comprehensive data on domestic sales is set to be released in the coming days, following a weak month for Tesla in China. In January, sales dropped 11.5 percent year-over-year and 32.6 percent from December, according to a report from the China Passenger Car Association released in early February, cited by Reuters.
What People Are Saying
Pras Subramanian, Yahoo! Finance autos reporter, said: “We’ve seen a lot of negative headlines for Tesla—it seems to be happening in basically all their major regions right now.
“The headline numbers do not look good and it’s not just China, it’s kind of everywhere,” Subramanian added.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), whose members have significant investments in Tesla, recently wrote a letter to institutional investors in the company.
“The AFT represents 1.8 million education, healthcare and public sector workers, many of whom depend on your firm to protect and prudently grow an estimated $4 trillion of retirement security assets, both individually and through pension funds and other collectively managed retirement security vehicles,” Weingarten wrote in the letter, shared with Newsweek.
“As the president of the AFT, I am writing to you to raise concerns about members’ deferred wages invested in Tesla, a company at risk of devaluation.”
What Happens Next?
Despite the sales declines and weak stock performance, many analysts remain bullish on Tesla.
Morgan Stanley analysts, in a recent note quoted by Investing.com, said that the company is poised to capture a large share of the increasing market for autonomous vehicles and AI-driven robotics.