Europeans angry with Musk still aren’t buying his cars as Tesla sales drop for fifth month in a row
Jun 25, 2025, 10:46 AM
FILE - Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk speaks at the SATELLITE Conference and Exhibition, March 9, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Europeans still aren’t buying Teslas with figures out Wednesday showing sales plunged for a fifth month in a row in May, a blow to investors who had hoped anger toward Elon Musk would have faded by now.
Tesla sales fell 28% last month in 30 European countries even as the overall market for electric vehicles expanded sharply, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers鈥� Association. The poor showing comes after Tesla’s billionaire CEO had promised a 鈥渕ajor rebound鈥� was coming last month, adding to a recent buying frenzy among investors.
They were selling on Wednesday, pushing the prices down more than 4% in early afternoon trading.
Musk had said Tesla was sure to get a boost once the company was done retooling its factories to produce a new version of its biggest seller, the Model Y. But that was finished months ago, and the new models are widely available. Investors are now hoping that a cheaper Tesla expected to be out later year will help reverse the sales decline.
Overall, battery electric vehicle sales rose 25% in Europe compared to a year earlier. The market for EVs was particularly strong in Germany, where Musk has angered potential buyers by publicly supporting the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party in elections. Overall EV sales there leapt 45%.
China鈥檚 SAIC Motor was the big winner for the month with its European sales of EVs and other kinds of cars jumping 38%. That has allowed the company to leapfrog Tesla, which a year ago was selling more cars in the region.
SAIC sold 18,716 vehicles last month versus Tesla鈥檚 8,729.
The sales drop for Tesla comes at a crucial time for the company as it launches a test run of its driverless 鈥榬obotaxis鈥� service in Austin, Texas. Musk says that if goes well, he expects to introduce the service in several other cities in quick succession and have as many as a million of the automated cabs on roads by the end of the year.
Reviews so far have been mostly good, but the service is limited to a dozen or so cars and some passengers have circulated videos of problems during their rides, including one showing a robotaxi heading down a lane for opposing traffic.
Federal traffic safety regulators said Tuesday they were looking into the videos.
