Tesla sales slump in Europe as anger toward Elon Musk grows

Tesla’s sales in Germany plunged in February, part of a wider slump across Europe that has undercut the company’s share price and highlighted anger at the political activities of Elon Musk, the company’s CEO.

Sales of Tesla cars in Germany, Europe’s largest market for electric vehicles, dove 76% in February compared with a year earlier, the German Association of the Automotive Industry said Wednesday. The U.S. carmaker’s sales in the country have fallen two months in a row.

Demand for Teslas has also dropped in other European countries since Musk became a de facto member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet and ramped up promotion of far-right parties in Europe and elsewhere on X, the social platform he owns.

Tesla’s share price has fallen more than 40% from its peak in December and erased all the gains made after Trump won the presidency in November, when investors bet that Musk could use his influence in the White House to benefit his businesses. (Tesla shares rose 2.6% Wednesday.)

In Germany, Musk’s aggressive promotion of a far-right party before last month’s parliamentary elections and his call for citizens to move beyond “a focus on past guilt” may have alienated customers.

Musk and Tesla are increasingly being targeted by activists and vandals. Activists in London have started a campaign encouraging people to ditch their Teslas and cancel their accounts on X. In Strasbourg, France, an activist group is handing out stickers warning the Tesla chief to “Stay Away from the EU.” Over the weekend, Tesla vehicles in a parking lot in southern France were set ablaze, which prosecutors said was “not at all accidental.”

Demand for Tesla’s cars in France dropped more than 26% in February compared with a year ago, according to the PFA automobile organization.

In Norway, which is within striking distance of its goal to end sales of combustion engine cars this year, Tesla sales nearly halved in February from a year earlier, according to the Norwegian Road Traffic Information Council. It was the second monthly drop in a row, despite an overall upswing in the number of new cars registered in the country. Tesla’s share of the overall market slipped to 8.8% this year, down from 20% in 2023.

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