While Elon Musk continues to make waves as a disruptive force tearing through U.S. government agencies, his bread-and-butter business appears to be suffering. In response to Musk’s prominent role in the Trump administration, people are protesting outside of Tesla showrooms, getting rid of their Tesla cars or simply not buying them in the first place. Many people no longer want to be associated with Tesla and its divisive CEO, leaving the brand – once a symbol of forward thinking and a progressive lifestyle – reeling.
The latest registration figures published by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, or ACEA, last week suggest that Europeans are turning their backs on Tesla quickly, as new registrations of Tesla cars plummeted in January against the market trend. According to the figures, Tesla sold less than 10,000 vehicles across the EU plus Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Iceland and the United Kingdom, down 45 percent from January 2024. At the same time, new registrations of electric cars surged 37 percent in January, meaning that the Tesla slump cannot be explained by broader market dynamics.
Looking further at 2024 registrations suggests that Tesla has been falling behind in the European market for a while, as its aging fleet is competing with an ever-growing selection of electric vehicles from legacy car makers. Tesla has underperformed the European BEV market in terms of growth in three of the past four quarters, seeing its market share drop from 18.2 percent in 2023 to 16.6 percent in 2024 and just 6 percent in January 2025. How much of that trend is caused by growing competition and the lack of new Tesla models and how much can be attributed to Musk’s increasingly divisive persona is unclear, but the combination of all three factors is not a winning recipe for the former EV frontrunner.
