Tesla is doing well in China, with a big boost in deliveries last week. However, the automaker has yet to recover from its sales slumping in Europe.
For the first time in years, Tesla’s deliveries have been down in the first half of the year compared to the same period last year.
The last time Tesla had a quarter down year-over-year was during the early days of the pandemic, but even then, the automaker recovered quickly and it was up the next quarter.
This is the first time Tesla’s deliveries have been down year-to-year for two quarters in a row since it became a major automaker.
The problem is in Europe. In the old continent alone, Tesla’s deliveries, based on registration data, are down by about 60,000 units so far this year compared to 2023:
Tesla is facing strong competition in Europe. On top of it, many believe its lineup is getting stale.
The company is calling it “being between two growth waves”.
CEO Elon Musk has made no secret of his focus on autonomy and Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) package, but the latter is not available in Europe, which puts the market on the backburner for Tesla.
However, China is another market where FSD is not yet approved, though Tesla has made some progress on that front as of late, but the automaker is doing much better what is now by far the world’s biggest EV market.
According to registration data by Li Auto, 15,500 insurance registrations for Tesla vehicles were filed in China last week, which is up 23% over last year.
Tesla also registered just over 74,000 vehicles in China last month. That’s about half of what It delivered in Europe so far this year.
Electrek’s Take
It shows that Tesla is increasingly reliant on the Chinese market for its performance.
Top comment by Mark Nieuweboer
Two reasons: 1. the competition innovated where Tesla stagnated (too much focus on autonomous driving which is not a thing in Europe, so we don't care; meanwhile, no new models or much variation in current models. You'd be driving five year old models) and 2. Tesla is now a tainted brand, after Elon Musk's open conversion to MAGA-sponsor.
The US is stalling, and Europe is slumping.
It’s not shocking, considering the Cybertruck is the only new vehicle Tesla has launched in the last 4 years, and it’s not even available in Europe.
Tesla needs a wider lineup to keep growing its deliveries. It’s as simple as that.
Yes, solving self-driving would help too, but at some point, Tesla needs to admit that it doesn’t actually know when it is solving this problem.
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