Tesla’s (TSLA) situation in Europe continues to deteriorate, despite electric car sales surging and the new Model Y now being available.
The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) released the latest complete data for European vehicle sales for April 2025 today, and it confirmed that Tesla’s total sales in EU, EFTA, and UK amounted to 7,261 units – down 49% year-over-year:
Tesla’s deliveries in Europe are now down 38.8% year-over-year for the first four months of the year.
During that same period, battery-electric vehicle sales grew 26.4% in the market and 34.1% in April alone.
Last week, we reported that Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed “every manufacturer” is experiencing demand problems in Europe, with “no exception.”
As we can see from the ACEA data, that’s not true. The Volkswagen Group, Renault, BMW, and SAIC are all up year-to-date and in April.
Tesla’s problems persist into May. The data coming from European markets that report daily car registration shows that Tesla’s Q2 is still tracking barely above Q1 and significantly below Q2 2024:
In Q1 2025, Tesla blamed its poor performance on the Model Y changeover, but it doesn’t have this excuse in Q2.
The automaker is currently offering record discounts and incentives to buy in most markets, including Europe. It also has its new Model Y available, but it is clear that Tesla is suffering from demand problem as its sales are down in virtually all markets.
Electrek’s Take
The narrative that everyone is having demand problems in Europe is not true, mainly when you focus on battery-electric vehicles.
Sales are way up. Tesla is the exception in BEVs.
Top comment by Leonard Bates
When I see that TSLA stock continues to do well, I think of this quote from the great Carl Sagan:
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
It’s true that the Model Y changeover had an impact in Q1, but it wasn’t fair to blame the full decline on it. A significant portion of Tesla’s issues in Q1 was related to brand damage, primarily due to its CEO, Elon Musk, and this is now becoming clear in Q2.
There’s room to get worried as competition is only going to get tougher.
The brand damage occurring just as customers are gaining more options is not positive for Tesla.
At this point, it’s not clear what Tesla can do to turn things around in Europe. Distancing itself from Musk could help, but even then, it looks like Tesla would need a lot more to get out of an almost 50% drop.
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