6 ms·

Tesla's sales plummet across Europe

41 points by mirzap 2y ago

mirzap 2y ago
https://archive.ph/bclhi https://archive.ph/bclhi
ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/02/tesla-sales-plummet-in-the-uk-france-and-germany/ https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/02/tesla-sales-plummet-in-...
- kalleboo 2y ago
  And discussed here (168 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42952088 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42952088
  - ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
    Thanks - I hadn't seen that on hn. It probably got removed from the frontpage for poor quality comments Edit: this one is now flagged
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
roenxi 2y ago
This is probably driven by the ongoing energy crisis and other economic factors. If we look at electricity use [0] in Germany we see the same old evidence can be seen accross the Western world. Germany is producing the lowest amount of electricity in 40 years. Last time I checked their $/kW was also awkwardly high. If the amount electricity available is dropping, are people really going to be adding large new energy-hungry appliances like electric vehicles? I'd suggest not. Shutting off all the nuclear plants still looks pretty dumb, even in hindsight. [0] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electricity-prod-source-stacked?country=~DEU https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electricity-prod-source-s...
- jsnell 2y ago
  The article says the EV sales in general grew by 50%. How does your theory explain that? Do other EVs use less electricity less Teslas?
- biomene 2y ago
  From the article: > Tesla’s drop came as the German EV market in January grew more than 50 per cent year on year, pushing its market share down from 14 to 4 per cent. So to answer your question, it seems like people don't mind buying new electric vehicles. They just have a problem with Tesla in particular.
- crustycoder 2y ago
  How about reading the linked article before posting? "Tesla’s drop came as the German EV market in January grew more than 50 per cent year on year, pushing its market share down from 14 to 4 per cent."
- nonrandomstring 2y ago
  No. It's due to widespread anti US-American sentiment. There's been a spate of vandalism of Tesla vehicles, scratching, daubing with slogans, smashing windows and arson. Sad for those who bought an EV to "help the planet" and are so cruelly judged by reactionary prejudice, but these cars have become a symbol of something utterly rotten. I know it's painful but perhaps you are underestimating how much visceral hatred there is out there toward Elon Musk?
  - spants 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
      The photo montages certainly demonstrate that static images can be very easily taken out of context. The Musk salute can be shown as a video, in context and still be a nazi salute. If you look at videos of the other poses, it is clear that they are not intended as any kind of salute.
ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
I suspect that Musk has access to a lot of government funds now so will be unconcerned about the lack of Tesla sales.
stevage 2y ago
> Tesla’s drop came as the German EV market in January grew more than 50 per cent year on year, pushing its market share down from 14 to 4 per cent. Wow.
cjrp 2y ago
> [...] amid a consumer backlash against Elon Musk’s political activism and meddling in regional politics. Hmm, not sure they can attribute the drop entirely to that. In the UK at least there's been a wave of Chinese brands launching (BYD, Omoda, GWM, etc.), fuel prices have fallen from the high in mid-2022[0], and EVs will soon start paying vehicle tax (£195/year, previously £0). [0] https://www.racfoundation.org/data/uk-pump-prices-over-time https://www.racfoundation.org/data/uk-pump-prices-over-time
- zfg 2y ago
  So you're saying it's exactly the wrong time for Musk to flip fascist salutes and meddle in European politics? When buyers have a lot of choice of EV, why will they choose to buy a swasticar?
  - mytailorisrich 2y ago
    It's pretty clear that he did not do any sort of "fascist salute" but he is learning that in politics reality does not matter, only perception does and how often something is repeated so politicians are usually very careful... Edit: "look exactly like" (reply below) is a QED to my point, really.
    - ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
      How is that clear? The videos that I have seen look exactly like a deliberate nazi salute and I have heard that far right groups (of which I have no contact) interpreted it as such and celebrated it.
    - rspoerri 2y ago
      In 40 years I have never, outside of documentations about the second world war and fictional movies in that area, seen this salute. It is 100% a Nazi salute, that starts by hitting the heart and then stretching the arm. Nothing else comes even close to this that could explain such a behavior. If you don't see it you are either very ignorant or plain ... . Also meeting the AFD that is under investigation because of it's Nazi ideologies makes it clear that he has a very good understanding of what that salute means.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
dasKrokodil 2y ago
Here in Germany, the somewhat paradox situation is that the right-wing party AfD has been pro-diesel and anti-ev for a long time, while it's usually the more progressive and/or left-leaning people who have been buying EVs. But now that Musk has done something which looked very much like a Nazi salute on stage and also meddled in German politics by endorsing the AfD, nobody on the left wants to be seen in a Tesla anymore, while the right-wingers still prefer German diesel cars.
- mytailorisrich 2y ago
  I was thinking the same looking at France's numbers. Who's more likely to buy a Tesla and who's more likely to hate Trump and Musk? (Also taking into account that some of France's very right wing politicians were invited at Trump's inauguration) Probably more overlap than Tesla would like... Especially now that you can buy something totally alien to this alleged ideology like a Volkswagen EV... That's the risk when getting into politics while running a business.
opendomain 2y ago
[flagged]
- ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
  I would suggest posting your question as an "Ask HN" topic by itself will be more fruitful. To start with, ensure that you're using well configured ssl certs and redirect to https
jaggs 2y ago
[flagged]
baerrie 2y ago
Thank you Europe for protesting by withholding money from this psycho.
- thefz 2y ago
  Vote with your wallet!
amriksohata 2y ago
ev sales are falling worldwide, this is bait journalism, germanys economy is also struggling

41 points by mirzap 2y ago

https://archive.ph/bclhi https://archive.ph/bclhi

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/02/tesla-sales-plummet-in-the-uk-france-and-germany/ https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/02/tesla-sales-plummet-in-...

kalleboo 2y ago
And discussed here (168 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42952088 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42952088
- ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
  Thanks - I hadn't seen that on hn. It probably got removed from the frontpage for poor quality comments Edit: this one is now flagged

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

roenxi 2y ago

This is probably driven by the ongoing energy crisis and other economic factors. If we look at electricity use [0] in Germany we see the same old evidence can be seen accross the Western world. Germany is producing the lowest amount of electricity in 40 years. Last time I checked their $/kW was also awkwardly high. If the amount electricity available is dropping, are people really going to be adding large new energy-hungry appliances like electric vehicles? I'd suggest not. Shutting off all the nuclear plants still looks pretty dumb, even in hindsight. [0] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electricity-prod-source-stacked?country=~DEU https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electricity-prod-source-s...

jsnell 2y ago
The article says the EV sales in general grew by 50%. How does your theory explain that? Do other EVs use less electricity less Teslas?
biomene 2y ago
From the article: > Tesla’s drop came as the German EV market in January grew more than 50 per cent year on year, pushing its market share down from 14 to 4 per cent. So to answer your question, it seems like people don't mind buying new electric vehicles. They just have a problem with Tesla in particular.
crustycoder 2y ago
How about reading the linked article before posting? "Tesla’s drop came as the German EV market in January grew more than 50 per cent year on year, pushing its market share down from 14 to 4 per cent."
nonrandomstring 2y ago
No. It's due to widespread anti US-American sentiment. There's been a spate of vandalism of Tesla vehicles, scratching, daubing with slogans, smashing windows and arson. Sad for those who bought an EV to "help the planet" and are so cruelly judged by reactionary prejudice, but these cars have become a symbol of something utterly rotten. I know it's painful but perhaps you are underestimating how much visceral hatred there is out there toward Elon Musk?
- spants 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
    The photo montages certainly demonstrate that static images can be very easily taken out of context. The Musk salute can be shown as a video, in context and still be a nazi salute. If you look at videos of the other poses, it is clear that they are not intended as any kind of salute.

ndsipa_pomu 2y ago

I suspect that Musk has access to a lot of government funds now so will be unconcerned about the lack of Tesla sales.

stevage 2y ago

> Tesla’s drop came as the German EV market in January grew more than 50 per cent year on year, pushing its market share down from 14 to 4 per cent. Wow.

cjrp 2y ago

> [...] amid a consumer backlash against Elon Musk’s political activism and meddling in regional politics. Hmm, not sure they can attribute the drop entirely to that. In the UK at least there's been a wave of Chinese brands launching (BYD, Omoda, GWM, etc.), fuel prices have fallen from the high in mid-2022[0], and EVs will soon start paying vehicle tax (£195/year, previously £0). [0] https://www.racfoundation.org/data/uk-pump-prices-over-time https://www.racfoundation.org/data/uk-pump-prices-over-time

zfg 2y ago
So you're saying it's exactly the wrong time for Musk to flip fascist salutes and meddle in European politics? When buyers have a lot of choice of EV, why will they choose to buy a swasticar?
- mytailorisrich 2y ago
  It's pretty clear that he did not do any sort of "fascist salute" but he is learning that in politics reality does not matter, only perception does and how often something is repeated so politicians are usually very careful... Edit: "look exactly like" (reply below) is a QED to my point, really.
  - ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
    How is that clear? The videos that I have seen look exactly like a deliberate nazi salute and I have heard that far right groups (of which I have no contact) interpreted it as such and celebrated it.
  - rspoerri 2y ago
    In 40 years I have never, outside of documentations about the second world war and fictional movies in that area, seen this salute. It is 100% a Nazi salute, that starts by hitting the heart and then stretching the arm. Nothing else comes even close to this that could explain such a behavior. If you don't see it you are either very ignorant or plain ... . Also meeting the AFD that is under investigation because of it's Nazi ideologies makes it clear that he has a very good understanding of what that salute means.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

dasKrokodil 2y ago

Here in Germany, the somewhat paradox situation is that the right-wing party AfD has been pro-diesel and anti-ev for a long time, while it's usually the more progressive and/or left-leaning people who have been buying EVs. But now that Musk has done something which looked very much like a Nazi salute on stage and also meddled in German politics by endorsing the AfD, nobody on the left wants to be seen in a Tesla anymore, while the right-wingers still prefer German diesel cars.

mytailorisrich 2y ago
I was thinking the same looking at France's numbers. Who's more likely to buy a Tesla and who's more likely to hate Trump and Musk? (Also taking into account that some of France's very right wing politicians were invited at Trump's inauguration) Probably more overlap than Tesla would like... Especially now that you can buy something totally alien to this alleged ideology like a Volkswagen EV... That's the risk when getting into politics while running a business.

opendomain 2y ago

[flagged]

ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
I would suggest posting your question as an "Ask HN" topic by itself will be more fruitful. To start with, ensure that you're using well configured ssl certs and redirect to https

jaggs 2y ago

[flagged]

baerrie 2y ago

Thank you Europe for protesting by withholding money from this psycho.

thefz 2y ago
Vote with your wallet!

amriksohata 2y ago

ev sales are falling worldwide, this is bait journalism, germanys economy is also struggling