Tesla, owned by Elon Musk, has seen a dramatic decline in sales in European markets, with registrations down 45% in January over the same month last year. The drop comes whilst the European electric vehicle (EV) industry as a whole is expanding rapidly, rising 37% last month thanks to impressive results from competitor automakers in Germany and the UK.
The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association reports that Tesla sales in January were just 9,945 units, a significant drop from 18,161 units the year prior. Germany was a particularly difficult market for the corporation; there were just 1,277 new cars registered there, the fewest since July 2021. Sales in France fell by 63%, which was the worst result for Tesla since August 2022.
On the other hand, Tesla’s sales in the UK decreased by over 8% in a market where EV sales increased by 42%. In UK registrations, the Chinese automaker BYD overtook the corporation for the first time.
As legacy automakers like Volkswagen, Stellantis, and Renault face mounting governmental pressure to increase their EV offerings, Tesla’s performance in Europe is deteriorating. The competitive environment for Tesla may get even more intense in 2025 when European automakers are required to adhere to increasingly stringent carbon emissions objectives in the EU and fulfil increasingly higher zero-emission sales quotas in the UK.
In the meantime, CEP Musk has expressed interest in entering the Indian market once more. Musk recently rekindled rumours regarding Tesla’s long-awaited entry into India when he visited with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi while in Washington. The business advertises job openings in Mumbai for a number of positions, some of which also include work in New Delhi. According to reports, Tesla has approached Tata Motors executives about a possible partnership and may open showrooms in India. In keeping with the Indian government’s reservations about sourcing from the Chinese market, Tesla is also anticipated to import cars from its German facility rather than China.