Sales of Tesla cars - the electric vehicles manufactured by Elon Musk’s company - have dropped by half in Europe over the past year.
Registrations of Tesla vehicles in the European Union area fell by 49% year-on-year in January and February, dropping to 19,046 vehicles and a market share of 1.1%, show figures released on Tuesday March 25, by the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA).
This is in contrast to registrations of electric vehicles overall, which increased by 28.4% over the same period across the EU, to 255,489 vehicles and 15.2% of the market.
France Tesla sales drop
In France specifically, there were 26% fewer purchases of Tesla models in February 2025, in comparison to February 2024, dropping to 2,395 registrations, show figures from la Plateforme automobile (PFA), which were released on March 1.
This is despite vehicle sales in France remaining stable overall, including for electric vehicles, which maintained 18% of the market in February.
Electric models that appear to be replacing Tesla in the French market include:
“There has been a significant redistribution [of popular models] in the space of a year, mainly to the benefit of European manufacturers,” said Marc Mortureux of the PFA, to Le Figaro. European models have also benefited from increased European customs law changes, particularly those leading to the decline of MG-branded electric vehicles from Chinese manufacturer SAIC.
In January, Tesla announced a 1% drop in deliveries across 2024, the first such reduction in its history.
The company also announced it was closing a factory in Germany, after an arson attack and a workers’ strike, and it also closed manufacturing sites in Texas and China, for what it called “modernisation” work.
The drop in fortunes has been largely attributed to Tesla facing increased competition from more modern models.
Products and politics
“Tesla no longer positions itself with the best products,” said Matthieu Noel, automotive sector expert at Roland Berger, to Le Figaro. “The facelift given to the Model 3 and Model Y, its bestsellers, give the impression that it is still the same vehicle.”
He also said that reliability issues and a massive recall of the Cybertruck model (which is not sold in Europe), could have played a role in declining sales worldwide.
In addition, he also suggested that the trend could be due to the company’s head, Elon Musk, forging increasingly-close ties with controversial US President Donald Trump.
“Many people do not agree with his [political] position,” said Mr Noel. “But, it is still difficult to say at this stage whether it is having a real impact on the brand or if it is temporary.”
‘Tesla Takedown’
Mr Musk’s political actions have seen some backlash against the Tesla brand.
In recent weeks, demonstrations have been organised in front of Tesla dealerships. Social media posts under the name ‘Tesla Takedown’ have encouraged attendance at these protests, and called on Tesla owners to sell their vehicles.
A ‘global’ protest has been called for Saturday, March 29. Bumper stickers are also being sold for Tesla drivers to stick to their vehicles, including with the slogan: “I bought this before Elon went crazy”.
Electric Europe
Tesla’s falling fortunes come as the European electric market (in the European Union) continues to grow, albeit cautiously.
Hybrid models accounted for 35.2% of sales in the first two months of the year (up 18.7% over one year)
This put them ahead of petrol models (29.1% of the market, a year-on-year drop of 20.5%)
In total there were fewer than 1.7 million cars registered since the beginning of the year in the EU (a drop of 3% over one year).
Many countries in Europe have begun to adopt electric cars, particularly Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, as well as Spain and Italy. However, in February (year-on-year) new electric car registrations fell in France, Italy, and Germany; rising only in Spain (by 8%).
French market ‘sluggish’
The automobile market in France this year has so far been described as “sluggish (atone)”, with 141,568 registrations (of all kinds) in February (a 0.72% drop year-on-year).
Hybrid models currently dominate the market, with 44.3% of registrations in the first two months of the year, compared with 25.4% for petrol models, 17.7% for electric models, and 4.6% for diesel.
This is not enough for some electric vehicle proponents.
“It remains below the level needed for progress in the transition to zero-emission transport,” said Sigrid de Vries, director general of ACEA, in a press release.
She said that the European Commission needed to “address the fundamental bottlenecks holding back this transition”, ahead of its forthcoming proposal on penalties for cars and vans for the period 2025-27.
The ACEA has said that bottlenecks include the lack of recharging infrastructures, and of tax and purchase incentives for light and heavy vehicles. It also called for the reduction of electricity costs for electric car owners, to make running the vehicles more affordable.
