January Sales Plunge:
Germany Down 59.5%, France Down 63.4%
Tesla's vehicle sales in Europe have plummeted. Analysts suggest that Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, sparked backlash by intervening in politics in European regions such as the United Kingdom and Germany.
On the 7th, major foreign media outlets reported, citing data from the German Federal Motor Transport Authority, that Tesla vehicle sales in Germany in January amounted to only 1,277 units, a sharp decline of 59.5% compared to the same month last year. Germany is the only country in Europe with a Tesla manufacturing plant.
During the same period, 1,141 Tesla vehicles were newly registered in France, which also represents a 63.4% decrease from a year earlier. Additionally, new Tesla vehicle registrations declined compared to the previous year in Sweden (-44.3%), Norway (-37.9%), and the United Kingdom (-7.8%).
In Germany and France, electric vehicle demand itself had decreased last year due to government subsidy cuts but has recently been recovering. Despite this, Tesla vehicle sales have retreated. For example, Germany's electric vehicle market grew by 50% in January this year compared to the same period last year. However, Tesla's market share sharply dropped from 14% to 4%.
Tias Schmidt, an automotive analyst, explained that one reason for Tesla's sales decline in Germany is that consumers are waiting for the release of the new Model Y vehicle scheduled for the first half of this year.
There is also a perspective that blames German consumer backlash. This is because Musk, having emerged as a key ally of former U.S. President Donald Trump, openly displayed his political leanings and supported European far-right parties.
Earlier, CEO Musk expressed support for the far-right party "Alternative for Germany" (AfD) ahead of Germany's early general election on the 23rd. In a column he contributed to the German weekly newspaper Welt am Sonntag at the end of last year, he argued, "It is clearly wrong to classify AfD as a far-right party," and claimed, "AfD is Germany's last flicker of hope."
Last month, he also held a discussion on X (formerly Twitter) with Alice Weidel, co-leader of AfD. Throughout this series of events, CEO Musk directly demanded large-scale deportations of immigrants in Germany and made Germans and neighboring countries uncomfortable by using slogans from the Nazi era.
Views toward Tesla vehicle owners are also unfavorable. As a result, drivers, similar to those in the United States, are attaching stickers criticizing and condemning CEO Musk to their vehicles. A businessman from Baden-W?rttemberg in southwestern Germany told German media, "We produced stickers for Tesla vehicle owners to put on their cars. The sticker says, 'I bought this car before Musk went crazy,'" adding, "Orders for the stickers surged to 2,000 over the weekend alone."
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