Tesla sales plummet across Europe as Musk backs far right
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The news: Sales of Tesla’s electric vehicles have fallen sharply across key European markets, with German registrations dropping 59% year on year to 1,277 in January, even as EV sales in the country are booming.
The numbers: Germany’s EV market grew 54% in January, cutting Tesla’s market share from 14% to 4%, The Financial Times reported, citing the German Federal Motor Transport Authority.
In France, the EU’s second-largest market behind Germany, Tesla saw a 63% decline in sales in January, while Norway had 38% fewer Tesla registrations. In the UK, sales fell 12%, according to Bloomberg.
Sales also fell in California, a key EV market, in all four quarters of 2024.
The context: While analyst Matthias Schmidt said a factor driving the decline could be consumer anticipation of the upgraded Model Y in the second half of 2025, others pointed to inventory shortages and backlash over Musk’s political activism in the region.
The world’s richest person has spent the month cementing his position in the administration of US President Donald Trump, who has threatened the EU with tariffs, has taken on UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and has emerged as the wealthiest and most influential backer of far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) ahead of that country’s 23 February election.
Last month, he hosted AfD leader Alice Weidel for a 75-minute discussion on X and spoke virtually at an AfD rally where he urged Germans to be “proud of their culture,” warning against “too much focus on past guilt”—remarks that sparked outrage, especially before the 80th anniversary of the Auschwitz liberation.
Musk has drawn sharp criticism from German politicians for backing a party that advocates mass migrant deportations, uses Nazi-era slogans and is partly classified as right-wing extremist by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency.
A mid-January YouGov poll found Musk is viewed unfavourably in Germany, and his political interventions are unwelcome, with some Tesla owners responding with protest stickers for their cars that say “I bought this before Elon went crazy.”
Under pressure from stricter EU emissions regulations pushing them to sell more EVs, competitors such as Volkswagen, Stellantis and Renault gained ground while Tesla lost market share.
Polestar CEO Michael Lohscheller, a German national, has called Musk’s AfD support “totally unacceptable” and instructed sales teams to target Tesla owners unhappy with Musk’s politics.
What they said: “We get a lot of people writing that they don’t like all this,” Polestar CEO Michael Lohscheller told Bloomberg News in an interview last month.
The sources: Financial Times, Bloomberg
