The latest sales numbers from much of Europe paint a disappointing picture for Tesla, continuing the company's difficult year.
What's happening?
Reuters reported on August's European car sales numbers, which showed some gains in certain countries but massive losses in a number of others.
In France, for example, registration of new Teslas fell 47.3% from August 2024, despite there being a 2.2% increase in overall car sales. Tesla registrations also dropped by 84% in Sweden, 50% in the Netherlands, 42% in Denmark, and 4.4% in Italy.
In Norway, Portugal, and Spain, Tesla sales increased by 21.3%, 28.7%, and 161% in Spain. But in Norway and Spain, those gains were a fraction of the increases seen by one of Tesla's rivals, the Chinese electric automaker BYD.
Why are Tesla's sales concerning?
August's numbers continued a troubling trend for Tesla, which has seen its sales slip in many key global markets this year.
In the first half of 2025, Tesla's market share in Western Europe fell to 1.7%, down from 2.5% in 2024. Sales have also fallen in the U.S., including a 15% year-over-year dip in the second quarter.
Reuters attributes part of this dip to increased competition in the EV space and a lack of new models from Tesla. The company hasn't released a new mass model in Europe since 2020's Model Y and has acknowledged the Cybertruck likely won't ever be released in Europe.
But Reuters also puts part of the onus for lower sales on CEO Elon Musk, who has become a much more controversial figure in recent years. At the start of 2025, he took a role heading up the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency, which put him in the center of many political firestorms.
Ginny Buckley, CEO of Electrifying.com, told Reuters that more than half of respondents in a poll said Musk's presence was putting them off from buying a Tesla, and that "Tesla's dominance is no longer a given."
What does this mean?
Given Tesla's position as an EV pioneer and the most well-known all-electric automaker, it would be easy to view any dip in its sales as bad news and as a sign that fewer EVs will be on the road.
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Fortunately, that's not the case, as EV sales have actually never been higher, meaning that more people have decided to make the switch away from polluting, gas-powered cars to electric counterparts that create no tailpipe pollution.
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