Summary
Tesla’s European sales plunged 45% in January, while the EV market grew 37%, with rivals like Volkswagen and Renault gaining ground.
Production changes for the Model Y is claimed to contribute to lower sales, but Elon Musk’s political controversies also sparked backlash.
Musk’s support for far-right parties and attacks on European leaders have made him unpopular, as polls show negative perceptions in Germany and the UK.
Tesla’s struggles come as European automakers face stricter emissions targets, increasing competition in the region’s growing EV market.
I’ve been saying this for years, Tesla will not remain #1 on electric cars once they become mainstream.
Tesla has declining sales in ALL major markets, and they have only half the profitability of the average for the industry!!
Tesla is not a competitive brand anymore, and unless something is done, Tesla will be gone in 10-20 years.
This is not just because of Musk, it’s also because the alternatives are getting better than Tesla now. Musk is absolutely accelerating the decline of Tesla, both by making stupid decisions for Tesla, and by being an unpopular figure.
But Tesla is not developing at the same cadence as other makers, 5 years to make an updated model Y is a very slow development cadence, the average is about 3 years, and currently in China for EV it’s allegedly half that!!
For a new type of car, where developments are constant on better technologies like batteries, 5 years is horrendously slow, and cutting prices hard kind of makes it worse, devaluing the entire fleet of existing cars.
Something Musk also promised wouldn’t happen, as he claims a Tesla holds value better than any other brand, which is now obviously false.