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).
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.
Microlino, Fiat panda grande, Renault 5, Citroën Ami and others. The smaller and more affordable versions are getting there.
Any of those in the US market?
I’ve only seen Rivians and Teslas in my parts.
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…
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.
Not a single one of them is available where I live. And once I checked them, they’re not really family cars I was hoping for.
So Dacia Spring?
Good news everyone!
Oh no!
If I was alone, this would be an option. With family, not so much. I’ve heard horrible stories, struggling to go uphill with 4 people on board, etc. And I live in a hilly area.
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.
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!
The fiat 500 e fits all that and it’s a delight to drive.
It’s a cool car, yes. Too small for me, but cool as fuck. Used ones are affordable, but it’s still 34k € new, which is not cheap at all.
Fair enough on the price. We got a used 2021 for a lot less than that and it’s the perfect car for us. It’s surprisingly spacious inside. This is coming from a 195cm overweight guy.
Do you drive it with family?
We’re only two so I understand we’re in a special situation. Kids would fit fine in the back, but with teenagers and adults it gets a bit tight.
Also, for some perspective, my normal driving position, the seat is somewhere in the middle of the movement range. Not all the way to the back.
Ballsack massage device you say…
I had the option but it drove me nuts
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…
I do that kind of trips with Spring. No problem. It has surprisingly big trunk for groceries and whatnot. If kids are above 3yo it’s all good.
Obviously it’s not a highway monster but for every day trips we usually take this one.
VW E-Up is cheap and really good
Just wondering, what qualifies as cheap for you?
It depends… As our old Ford gave up, I bought used car at the end of 2023. It is Kia Ceed SW, was three and a half years old when I bought it and I paid roughly 14k € for it, which is about my ceiling for a car. Not that I couldn’t pay more, but I don’t want to as our family doesn’t drive that much. Our last car did about 5-10k km a year and this one is no different.
When I was checking BEV at the time there was nothing usable at my price range and area. Couple of used E-Ups, which are too small honestly (that’s why we bought SW, trunk is always full of something). Same goes for BMW i3, which is also so hideous my wife said it would be a divorce. Not many E-Golfs, most of them totally abused, and way older than I’d like. Few Renault Zoes, but that’s a brand I wouldn’t trust with my past experience… There was simply nothing that would make sense. Not sure how it changed during 2024, but my hopes are low.
This sparks joy.
Or sparks fire, considering it’s Tesla
Europeans don’t want to drive a Swasticar? Why? Did something happen to make them dislike Nazis for some reason?
Looks at my VW
*Erika intensifies*
At least the current vw CEO isn’t openly a Nazi and they make good cars; unlike muskrat and his swasticars.
I wouldn’t fuck with VW after their “eco-diesel” bullshit from a decade or two ago. But I would probably still prefer them to Tesla if they were the only two car companies.
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.
I’m still friends with my ex, who’s American (as I am), but it’s far from a distant memory for her. 90% of her extended family on her mother’s side died in Auschwitz. Nearly as many on her father’s side were murdered too,
Unfortunately, for most Americans, WW2 is more of a call of duty plot.
WW2 is more of a call of duty plot
It’s the war Tom Hanks won.
Doing a nazi salute while making the Mussolini face, no less!
I know it’s not cool to take the piss out of someone’s appearance - but the fucker really does look like some of his ancestors were potatoes.
ADL supporting Musk’s salute, made US media/Zionist CNBC anyway ignore it. Germany doing the projection stunt on Tesla factory had more EU coverage. Social media, even reddit, is just starting to censor Musk anger now. Though, old people who casually think what mainstream media tells them, would go “media told us that ADL said he never did it, and they would never profit from anti semitism”
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.
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
Nearest repair center is 2 hours away
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’d judge Tesla drivers if they bought the car this year.
lol. Stupidly I didn’t consider that anyone would still buy one. New or secondhand.
Yeah, I mean who is their market now? Anyone who isn’t a nazi or ignorant isn’t going to want to be seen driving one. And I get the impression that right wing folks are more into fossil fuels.
I get the impression that right wing folks are more into fossil fuels.
Yup. I’d say they’re intentionally stupid.
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!
To be fair, he has been a cunt for way longer than a year.
Let’s get to 95% down in Q1 of 2025.
Well, I did Nazi that coming
Elon Musk should have his wealth forcefully redistributed
The TSLA crash going to be glorious, can’t wait.
The stock has been overinflated for years, it’s a grift detached from reality.
The stock market is now literally just a rigged casino where 90%+ of the stocks are owned by the rich.
Maybe Musk should sue them…
Get trump to tariff them. Or buy them, like Greenland!
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.
You may want to read the text before commenting nonsense, the French are not pleased either.
| Sales are crashing in France, Germany, and the UK […] In France, sales of new Teslas fell by 63 percent
I don’t see what justify your attack, it seems unnecessary to attack people based on their nationality. Yes, we do have a far-right issue in France, but it’s pretty much the same as everywhere else in Europe and there is still a resisting left here, not all hope is lost. Also, regarding your comment below, the white flag stereotype for France comes from 2003, when the US and allies invaded and destroyed Irak, but for once France stood against the US imperialism.
___the white flag stereotype for France comes from 2003
It actually comes (unfairly) from the French army mutinies of 1917 and (also unfairly) from France’s surrender to Hitler in 1940, in addition to their not joining in the fun in Iraq. All of which obscures a prior thousand-year history of kicking the shit out of people.
Thanks, I was not aware of that.
Yeah I’m glad the other guy replied with more details because my fuzzy memory was telling me that the French surrendering stereotype was around back in the 90s at least, but I was pretty young then and it was hard to remember.
I was just joking, but you forgot to say that this
kicking the shit out of people
can be made more specific, they were regularly kicking the shit out of Germans. Germans were the suffering side saying “thanks for punishing me, master” for most of those years. Not even counting, obviously, Normans kicking the shit out of English.
It’s a joke, it’s supposed to be grotesque. Grotesque is usually different from adequate to reality.
That’s first, second, my comment does incorporate the fact that the French are not pleased either. You may want to improve your skills of processing two-sentence comments.
Oops, this one is four sentences, I guess it’s going to hurt.
Yeah, fascism seems to be flourishing all over. I’ve never got the impression that France was any worse than anywhere else though.
What stereotype?
White-flag secretly-fascist Vichy one
Ah, the historically inaccurate, war criminal powered (Bush), meme. I forgot it included also a taste for the Vichy regime.
Strange to mention that and ignore Germany, the country that, you know, back then and now, has always been way more on the right than France.
“Punish France, ignore Germany” is still the current policy.
Germany lost, so it won’t be funny for them.
You know it was the French revolution that popularised the guillotine as a means of dealing with wealthy elites?
But yeah I don’t see how Tesla is going to ever repair the damage to their image, unless they can kick musk out and that doesn’t seem likely.
Make a product line of electric guillotines? And dogfood with Musk.
Anyway, the French revolution is not considered a one-sided success.
NAZCAR.
Swasticar.
No one wants to drive a swasticar.
