Tesla’s sales in Germany plunged in February, part of a wider slump across Europe that has undercut the company’s share price and highlighted anger at the political activities of Elon Musk, the company’s chief executive.
Sales of Tesla cars in Germany, Europe’s largest market for electric vehicles, dove 76 percent in February compared with a year earlier, the German Association of the Automotive Industry said Wednesday. The U.S. carmaker’s sales in the country have fallen two months in a row.
Demand for Teslas has also dropped in other European countries since Mr. Musk became a de facto member of President Trump’s cabinet and ramped up promotion of far-right parties in Europe and elsewhere on X, the social media platform he owns.
Tesla’s share price has fallen more than 40 percent from its peak in December and erased all the gains made after Mr. Trump won the presidency in November, when investors bet that Mr. Musk could use his influence in the White House to benefit his businesses.
In Germany, Mr. Musk’s aggressive promotion of a far-right party ahead of last month’s parliamentary elections and his call for citizens to move beyond “a focus on past guilt” may have alienated customers.
Mr. Musk and Tesla are increasingly being targeted by activists and vandals. Activists in London have started a campaign encouraging people to ditch their Teslas and cancel their accounts on X. In Strasbourg, France, an activist group is handing out stickers warning the Tesla chief to “Stay Away from the E.U.” Over the weekend, Tesla vehicles in a parking lot in southern France were set ablaze, which prosecutors said were “not at all accidental.”
Demand for Tesla’s cars in France dropped more than 26 percent in February compared with a year ago, according to the PFA automobile organization.
In Norway, which is within striking distance of its goal to end sales of combustion engine cars this year, Tesla sales nearly halved in February from a year earlier, according to the Norwegian Road Traffic Information Council. It was the second monthly drop in a row, despite an overall upswing in the number of new cars registered in the country. Tesla’s share of the overall market slipped to 8.8 percent so far this year, down from 20 percent in 2023.
“The brand has had a unique market position in Norway for several years,” Oyvind Solberg Thorsen, the council’s director, said in a statement. “Whether this will continue remains to be seen, as there is a lot of turmoil and noise surrounding Tesla and Elon Musk.”
Tesla’s February sales dropped 48 percent in Denmark and 42 percent in Sweden, despite an overall upswing in the auto markets in both countries.
Buyers of electric cars in Britain bucked the trend, with Tesla’s February sales increasing 20 percent compared with the same month last year, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said Wednesday. Despite the rise, Tesla’s sales were slower than those of other electric car brands, and its overall market share shrank 3 percentage points, to 10.8 percent.
Some of the sales declines may be explained by customers waiting for an updated version of the Model Y, which begins to roll out in Europe later this month. But that factor alone probably does not explain such huge declines, analysts said.
Tesla’s woes are not isolated to Europe. In China, Tesla produced almost 50 percent fewer vehicles in February. Mr. Musk’s political activities probably do not play a large role in China, the world’s largest car market, but competition from Chinese automakers like BYD and Xiaomi is intense.
Mr. Musk has said little about flagging car sales, arguing instead that Tesla’s growth will depend on advances in self-driving technology and a planned “Cybercab” that could steer, navigate and brake without human intervention. He told investors last month that Tesla would begin offering autonomous ride-hailing service in Austin, Texas, in June.
But Tesla also faces serious competition in that nascent business. Waymo, a unit of the same company that owns Google, already offers driverless taxi service in Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco, and it is expanding to Atlanta and Miami.
Some investors want to pressure Mr. Musk to focus more on Tesla rather his role as director of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Tulipshare, a shareholder advocacy group, is planning to ask investors at Tesla’s next annual meeting to tie Mr. Musk’s pay to his performance on environmental goals, social responsibility and corporate governance.
“It is time for Tesla’s investors to hold the company’s leadership accountable,” Antoine Argouges, the chief executive of Tulipshare, said in a statement.
