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).
I’m not going to sell a perfectly useable Model Y after a year just because the CEO is a cunt. But I’m going to tell everyone that he’s a cunt with 30 stickers plastered all over the useless rear window
Sell it to who, Ben? Fucking Aquaman?
Good choice, no point throwing it away if it was too late for you to realize, but it’s more powerful as a platform to disavow Musk and Tesla.
The US is collapsing and all I got was this lousy car
Fair point. I won’t judge Tesla drivers. I’ll judge Tesla drivers that don’t have a load of stickers on their car.
I remember headlines of people burning their Nikes when they learned the company was woke or something. Burn your car mate, that’ll show them for sure!
Well for obvious reasons. But also bcs their product is crap quality. My neighbour keeps on pouring grand after grand for stupid repairs into his model S
May every business that brings this man profit tank until he learns some empathy.
Doing a from-heart-to-sun salute tends to hurt sales in UK and Germany, who woulda thought. The stereotype about French is that they don’t care and might even like it, but maybe this is also about build and design quality.
What stereotype?
White-flag secretly-fascist Vichy one
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.
It does though, their most profitable (as in profit margin) businesses areas are the subscription based services and charging.
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.
The TSLA crash going to be glorious, can’t wait.
Turns out that siding against voters interested in human sustainability, and pro oil extortionist conservatives bent on climate and human destruction is not a good EV marketing strategy. I have an MBA… AMA
Also doing a nazi salute in front of thousands of people with full blown media coverage.
WWII might be a distant memory for Americans, but most of Europeans have been to historical sites of Jewish genocide.
Its investment in the Cybertruck is of no help in the region, as the steel-clad pickup truck is too large and heavy for use with a normal driver’s license and does not conform to road legality regulations.
I was not aware of this. Further reasons to laugh at Musk are always welcome!
Anyone driving anything close to a pickup here is a knob. Ford Rangers or Raptors are for men whos wives dress them.
Hilux was acceptable but they are in the same boat now, you all look ridiculous.
Let’s see how big of a mouth you run when i pull up in my ranger plastered with punisher skulls you beta 😎😎 jkdon’tbullymepls
I’m a sole trader, Stone Mason, I make enough to buy a used vehicle, but not new. Know what I would love? A light duty truck, no crew cab road princess bullshit, two seats in front, maybe a single half door passenger side for putting stuff behind the seats, and a properly sized bed. There’s no such thing on the used market. There’s absolutely uses for small trucks for trades folk. Back in Canada I had an older Ford Ranger, from when they were a rebadged Mitsubishi B3200. I would step over my dying gran for something like that here in the UK. The new Rangers are a fucking joke, FWD, crew cab standard, and they’re the size of the old F-150s, completely unusable in the UK. I’m thinking about maybe importing a Japanese Kei Truck. There’s some larger ones that are smaller than an old Ranger, but big enough for what I need…and they look cool AF.
They have there place, but they are in the same boat as vans etc. They are commercial vehicles, to do a job, not city runabouts to stroke egos.
Pretty much true in the US too - especially a Raptor.
The only acceptable vehicle is a range rover, and even then it has to have mud on it.
This metal blob goes against so many safety regulations in Europe, it is basically unfixable. And even then you would need a truckers licence to drive it, like the ones for big commercial trucks.
Yeah technically it’s a HGV, and you need an HGV license in order to be able to drive it.
Although apparently the other problem is that it has red indicators, because in the US they don’t have separate lights for brakes and indicators they just flash the brake light.
Most cars have yellow lights for indicators and red for brakes. Even for the US having red indicators is at least uncommon.
No it’s not. I see red turning indicators waaay more often than yellow ones.
You live somewhere with a lot of trucks? Most cars and suvs have separate ones, i don’t remember the last time I saw a red indicator other than on a semi. I see a lot of people not bother to indicate but the yellow or orange is there.
Montreal but also lived in Toronto for four years. It’s red blinkers everywhere, annoying as heck.
Not that many trucks, I guess. Are we talking about trucks only? I might be wrong then. Mostly crossover SUVs.
Is the manbaby gonna sue every European for not buying his shitass cars now?
This sparks joy.
“Europe and the UK” did they move the UK to another continent, or did they mean the EU?
You know exactly what was meant.
The UK is technically on a few islands, one can use Gibraltar to argue, of course, and historically English crown did possess lots of land in Normandy, Anjou, Aquitaine and even Flanders, also that union with Hannover, but ahem.
You see there was this little thing called Brexit…
Oh right, is that when they moved to a different tectonic plate?
Yes.
Oh I see what you’re saying. Yeah, they probably should have said EU but it’s a little pedantic to pretend you didn’t know.
Welcome to the internet.
So, I hate to be the breaker of bad news, but the UK has left the EU 🤷 Don’t shoot the messenger
EU ≠ Europe
Europe is a continent. The European Union is a group of countries in Europe, no longer including the UK.
Maps like this are the only way my feeble American brain can process complicated European things.
The EU one has camo painted seas, so I needed several seconds for my understanding of “what is where” kicked in. I wonder how they got this stupid idea
This post unfortunately leaves out the all important Council of Europe (not to be confused with the European Council). 😉
Great Britain and the British Isles are geographical terms, not political ones. Sometimes publications will say Great Britain to mean England, Scotland, and Wales, but not Northern Ireland but they also don’t include things like the Isle of Man in that even though technically Great Britain does include the Isle of Man.
Unless the conversation is explicitly about geography, and land masses you should not use anything other than the United Kingdom.
Read the comment. EU - maybe, but not the Europe,how do you leave a continent?
Give it a couple million years of plate tectonics.
Or maybe if everyone jumps up in the air at the same time.
Yes but not the continent despite what certain people would like
Gimme cheap, simple and reliable EV with guaranteed 200km range and I’m sold. I don’t need bazillion of cameras inside and out, I don’t need glass roof, I don’t need 200kW of ridiculous power I would never use, I don’t need always online maps for a subscription fee and I don’t need 20" infotainment, neither I need 3 zone AC with ventilated seats and ballsack massage device, etc. I just want a Dacia of EV market.
VW E-Up is cheap and really good
Microlino, Fiat panda grande, Renault 5, Citroën Ami and others. The smaller and more affordable versions are getting there.
There’s a little blue Honda EV I see at work. Looks smart as.
Any of those in the US market?
I’ve only seen Rivians and Teslas in my parts.
There’s a lot more, but they don’t stand out. Look at cars that don’t have a radiator and if course a tailpipe.
You’ve probably seen a lot more electric vehicles than you realize. Almost every big manufacturer has them in their lineups at this point, just most of them are looking more and more conventional.
Take a look at the Honda Prologue, the Toyota BZ4X, the Kia Niro EV6 or EV9, VW ID.4, Hyundai Ioniq line and Kona, Ford Mach E, Chevy Equinox EV or Blazer EV.
There’s also EV versions the F150, Chevy Silverado, and Hummer. Supposedly RAM will have an EV truck soon, too.
Granted there are fewer compact sizes than in European markets, but that’s true of all vehicles, regardless of powertrain
Chevy Bolt, except it was discontinued so now nothing…
The fiat 500 e fits all that and it’s a delight to drive.
Coincidentlaly, throwing all this junk out makes EV’s significantly lighter. And theoretically cheaper.
They kinda suffer from “the tyranny of the rocket equation” since so much of their mass is “fuel.” Make it lighter, and they need less battery for the same range, which means you need even less battery to carry that battery around, lighter motors, less chassis and suspension weight for that, which removes even more battery, and so on.
This is not the case with combustion cars, where much of the engine’s mass is fixed and gasoline takes up little weight.
Fully solid-state batteries are just around the corner - some Chinese models already have a semi-solid-state battery, MG are releasing one this year, companies like Toyota and Honda are working on it too. The current use case is to extend range (600+ miles / 1000+ kms) but they could also be used to get similar range as today’s cars with a much lighter battery.
The Aptera coming out follows this principle. It’s the only EV that’s light enough that the onboard solar panels contribute a significant boost in range.
Do you know where it’s at? It was supposed to come to US by 2022, and I’m wondering about Europe…
It’s was getting shown off at CES. Plenty of videos on youtube.
Europe would be a different beast regardless. It’s expensive to pay for safety testing in one place and those aren’t transferable. If you want one in Europe, you might be able to as a private importer maybe? There was one guy who tried that with a Cybertruck and got in trouble. I’m not a lawyer.
That’s what I was wondering, thank you! I’m not confident that it will come to Europe and I unfortunately cannot afford to buy a car that won’t be commonly supported by garages!
So Dacia Spring?
Good news everyone!
Ballsack massage device you say…
Dacia Spring. You’re welcome.
Well, I mean a car where I can fit with my wife, two kids, bag of groceries and still drive uphill…
Honestly people would have to be basically mad to buy tesla now, same with twitter etc.
I sympathise with people who starlink is the only option but yeah I’d rather go without.
I recently bought a camper van and was planning on getting starlink so I can work from the road (not full time). I guess I’ll have to make sure I’m not off the beaten path on work days and stick to Hotspot.
This is the way. I wish more people would accept what is quite literally only minor inconvenience in the name of starving these insane companies. We honestly have it so good in most of modern society, and some things are just totally optional imo.
Thanks
Yeah sad thing is I can understand Starlink being the only option for some people, so yeah I wouldn’t blame you for using it.
Let’s get to 95% down in Q1 of 2025.
