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Tesla's German car sales more than halve in October as wider EV sales jump
- moosedman 11mo agoI don’t understand how the Tesla fanboys don’t realize how badly he’s torched his consumer base with his politics…
- _aavaa_ 11mo agoIt’s cause Tesla isn’t a car company, it’s an AI robotics company’s /s
- schiffern 11mo agoThis but unironically.
- justapassenger 11mo agoNot releasing any new model in half a decade (let's forget about cybertruck - tesla already did) didn't help either.
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- schiffern 11mo agoNope, bad strategy advice. Tesla is battery-limited, not demand-limited. Adding models would only add complexity without meaningfully increasing revenue. It helps to know basic fundamental facts about the company.
- BigTTYGothGF 11mo ago> Tesla is ... not demand-limited Per the article, this no longer seems to be the case.
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- schiffern 11mo agoYou fell for the "we didn't say it so technically we didn't lie" clickbait headline, I see. This article is the same recycled misinformation that's been repeated for years. What's actually happening is that Tesla does regional delivery waves, which results in large month-to-month fluctuations. Nothing new here. Yes Virginia, the media will distort information to sell eyeballs. Color me shocked!
- buellerbueller 11mo agoYTD-over-YTD, tesla sales are down 30% in EU. That is not explainable by month-to-month variation. You fell for the "numbers are real" conspiracy.
- BigTTYGothGF 11mo agoFrom the article: > The number of Teslas sold in the January-October period dropped 50.4% to 15,595 units, compared with the same period last year.
- mjamesaustin 11mo agoPlease explain how a demand limited company is seeing dramatic reductions in its annual sales? They used to be demand-limited. Not today.
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- schiffern 11mo agoFalse premise. The company isn't demand limited, despite the (conspicuously implied and never actually stated) conclusion the headline desperately wanted you to reach. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45827800 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45827800 I really wish people had any media literacy left. This brand of lying without lying is extremely common in modern media, and also extremely easy to spot once you know what to look for.
- afavour 11mo agoDid you even read the article? > KBA said Tesla sold 750 cars in Germany in October, down by 53.5% from a year earlier. The number of Teslas sold in the January-October period dropped 50.4% to 15,595 units, compared with the same period last year. To be clear, you are suggesting that Tesla had no delivery "wave" between January and October? And that is the sign of a healthy company?
- tcfhgj 11mo agoHis claim is it's battery limited. I understand that as too little batteries are able to be produced to match the demand?
- Permit 11mo agoCan you (instead of pontificating about media literacy) share evidence that Tesla is currently battery-limited?
- mentalfist 11mo agoDelusional take. Look at sales and/or inventory trends over the past year. The demand is clearly crashing, and for many good reasons
- iagooar 11mo ago[flagged]
- ceejayoz 11mo agoAnyone asking this question at this point in time is not asking in good faith.
- iagooar 11mo agoI find it amusing how few people can actually answer this question. The many downvotes are a testimony to this.
- ceejayoz 11mo agoNah, we just know you're doing the https://lol.i.trollyou.com/ https://lol.i.trollyou.com/ thing.
- Forgeties79 11mo agoWhat question is there to answer? Do you legitimately not know about the controversies surrounding Elon Musk? Not thinking they’re a big deal is not the same as not knowing about them. If you are on HN you know his reputation and you know the things he’s done that have upset certain populations. There is no way you’re going to convince me this question is meant to be seriously answered.
- postflopclarity 11mo agoI take it you haven't read the news in a few years.
- Barrin92 11mo agoin Germany in particular? Endorsed a far-right party that is strongly opposed to renewable energy and electric vehicles, which does not strike me as smart if you're trying to appeal to EV buyers in Germany.
- schmidtleonard 11mo ago
- ajross 11mo ago> Tesla fanboys don’t realize I don't know who you're addressing. Lots of people, me included, don't like the conspiracy minded politicization of his fortune but still think the cars are pretty great. Seems like a boring opinion that wouldn't be controversial, but we still find ourselves subtweeted anyway. (Edit: three downvotes and a Godwin's Law reply drop within seconds, as expected. Seriously folks there are 125k people who work for that company, must everything about it be judged entirely on the last twelve months of one guys mania?)
- postflopclarity 11mo ago[flagged]
- verdverm 11mo agoThe winds have shifted, politics has seeped into everything, consumers are voting with money, most people are rejecting contemporary right-wing policies and politics. No longer are we going to tolerate the intolerant. If you are willing to look past the moral failings, you are seen as part of the problem and should expect consequences. Social dynamics are at work > (Edit: three downvotes and a Godwin's Law reply drop within seconds, as expected. Seriously folks there are 125k people who work for that company, must everything about it be judged entirely on the last twelve months of one guys mania?) It seems the answer is a definitive yes, reflect on why this is. Also, it's far more than 12 months. He's been manic for far longer, if not his entire life. We just saw the unfiltered version for the last 12 months. Now we know
- buellerbueller 11mo ago>most people are rejecting contemporary right-wing policies and politics. Hmm... >No longer are we going to tolerate the intolerant. If you are willing to look past the moral failings, you are seen as part of the problem and should expect consequences. Social dynamics are at work The woke left forcing ideological conformity loses them a lot of support from the center-left, which turns out is not a winning electoral strategy. At which point one must wonder if the wokeness is just performative and virtue signaling, rather than an attempt to gain actual political power.
- TheAlchemist 11mo agoIt's not only politics, although it certainly didn't help. Tesla did not release new cars, except for Cybertruck, for how long ? 5 years ? 10 years ? Their lineup was great initially, and there was 0 competition. Now there is a lot of competition and their lineup did not change at all. Their car business is dying. That's why they try to be an AI & Robotics company. Edit: Here is a good link to follow the sales data - for many countries, it's reported daily. https://eu-evs.com/brandCharts/TESLA/ALL_DAILY/QoQ-Chart https://eu-evs.com/brandCharts/TESLA/ALL_DAILY/QoQ-Chart
- yangikan 11mo agoDoes anyone know if Musk's robotics/AI business is under Tesla? What prevents him from launching the robots under a new company? Is there any protection for Tesla investors against these kind of things?
- TheAlchemist 11mo agoWell, if you follow his adventures a bit, it's quite obvious that there is absolutely nothing preventing him from that. 2 years ago, while claiming that Tesla is the leader in AI, he launched a private ... AI company (xAI), for which he took Tesla GPU chips, and now he tries to make Tesla ... invest in said company, at a valuation (>B100$) that could only be compared to something like Dogecoin. All of this, with your and my retirement money, since the stock is in the S&P.
- schiffern 11mo ago>Tesla did not release new cars, except for Cybertruck, for how long ? 5 years ? 10 years ? As stated earlier, this is extremely bad strategy advice. Tesla is battery-limited, not demand-limited (delivery wave concern trolling from OP's headline aside). Adding models would only add complexity without meaningfully increasing revenue. It helps to know basic fundamental facts about the company before commenting. >Now there is a lot of competition and their lineup did not change at all. More misinformation. Tesla continuously updates their cars unlike most manufacturers which are stuck in "waterfall" model year refreshes. See Sandy Munro's excellent breakdowns on the phenomenal pace of innovation at Tesla compared to competitors.
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- preezer 11mo agoYou are absolutely right. I live in Germany. Me and many of my friends considered Tesla as a real alternative, but after his lunacy came to light, none of us will even think of driving one.
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- Night_Thastus 11mo agoAside from politics, their cars have a reputation for poor quality control. Peeling steering wheels, leaking seals, funky air conditioner smells, etc. Then when there are problems you may be waiting months while it sits in a service center. Or the stupid thing may shut off (due to errors or updates) right when you need it. I would not want to buy one of them for any of those reasons, regardless.
- mattmaroon 11mo agoAnd they don’t have CarPlay. I was considering one but then I started dating a girl who drives a Model Y. So many little things wrong. Like the vent fan rattles, leather peels, etc. And when you get even a minor ding in the exterior, good luck.
- dzhiurgis 11mo agoAnd their nearest competition Hyundai/Kia have disintegrating reduction gear and exploding inverters. All cars have issues, but stats favour Tesla all while they are cheapest to repair.
- Night_Thastus 11mo agoRight now the electric car market sucks in the US. I'd honestly recommend people just go hybrid instead. Toyota has been doing it for 18 years now and hasn't had any reliability issues.
- dzhiurgis 11mo agoBut then you’d drive a car made for an 80 year old.
- Night_Thastus 11mo agoI don't really feel that's a fair analysis of either the brand or hybrids in general and paints in too broad of strokes. But regardless, If someone really wants a sporty car, they can get a sporty car. The vast majority of car buyers don't really care. They care about things like space, comfort, features, and monthly payment.
- themafia 11mo agoI don't understand why people think only left wing voters would buy a Tesla. If you think that's true then people aren't buying a quality vehicle they're buying an ideological badge. If you don't think that's true then people aren't buying them because they're not quality vehicles.
- hiddencost 11mo agoYou're confused.
- themafia 11mo agoI am a human, so that's entirely possible, but perhaps you'd like to expand on this point, otherwise, I risk remaining confused. Let me be clear about my point though, Tesla's are _not_ quality vehicles, and given a choice, consumers with money will not select them. Politics do not enter into this equation outside of Hacker News.
- AndrewDucker 11mo ago1) Left wing people have been more likely to buy an EV because they're seen as better for the environment. 2) Even if he only drives away the left wing half of the population that still halves his customer base.
- yongjik 11mo agoI think you're looking at it from the wrong end. You're right that most people don't want to buy an ideological badge. They want a quality vehicle. The problem is that Musk turned Tesla into an ideological badge. Off the top of your head, can you think of a single political remark made by the owners of Audi, Toyota, or Hyundai?
- rsynnott 11mo agoIn Europe, even most of the right wing, except the _real_ fringes, get a _little_ uncomfortable about _Nazi salutes_. For, y'know, obvious reasons. (Tbh, I'm amazed that the right in the US seem willing to give him a pass on that.)
- 01100011 11mo agoI'm still seeing quite a few new Teslas in San Diego(arguably a more conservative city by CA standards). Someone is still giving him money for some reason.
- mattmaroon 11mo agoThey understand that he has, they think it’ll blow over.
- moosedman 11mo agoIt won't
- azakai 11mo agoSome data on how badly he torched his consumer base: a Yale study says Tesla lost 1.26 million US sales due to Musk's politics. https://www.usatoday.com/story/cars/news/2025/10/28/tesla-lost-sales-political-fallout/86947021007/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/cars/news/2025/10/28/tesla-lo...
- standardUser 11mo agoIt might help if Tesla would release some new models that aren't obnoxious gimmicks with missing paint jobs.
- jstummbillig 11mo agoWhy would you assume that's not the case? Knowing something has gone wrong is different to putting effort into ensuring the general public is aware that you know something has gone wrong.
- electric_mayhem 11mo agoI was all in on Tesla in 2019. Solar, powerwalls, model 3. Traded the car in a couple months ago. It was ok, as a car, but I hated what it had become synonymous with so it was worth the financial hit to give up a paid off car. Turns out the new Mach-e which replaced it is better in every way. Might be some fanboys left, but a bunch of folks who might have fallen into that category in the past have been driven away by Musk’s unconscionable activities.
- dzhiurgis 11mo agoWe are not even in US, but 2 of my Tesla friends turned to support Trump and upgraded to new Model Y. I'd do the same, but I'm broke. I don't support Trump at all, but at least I don't suffer from TDS. I feel there has been shift or perhaps we were cringe tech bros from the start.
- schmidtleonard 11mo ago> at least I don't suffer from TDS Trump earns the ire of his political opposition. Framing that ire as delusional is itself delusional.
- dzhiurgis 11mo agoNicely put. But there's ire and there's a very small minority of derangement.
- tstrimple 11mo agoThe fanboys buy into the politics. They legitimately believe Musk made Twitter a place for free speech just because they can say racial slurs without repercussions. But happily ignore folks censored for saying such awful things as "cis". Musk fans are hypocrites first and foremost. Just like most right wingers. They demonstrate time and time again that they have zero real values or consistency.
- LightBug1 11mo agoExcellent news. Thanks.
- KaiserPro 11mo agoPart of this is down to musk being an obnoxious prick, but a larger part is down to teslas not actually being innovative, cheap or high quality enough any more. They look dated, or weird, have patchy customer service, and are not even that long range anymore.
- pimeys 11mo agoThey are all over Berlin as rentals, which you can rent from your phone, and pay per kilometer. People can test drive them easily, and they are not super nice cars. We much prefer the Audis, Toyotas, and Volkswagens that are also in the pool.
- rstupek 11mo agoFrom US sales, Audi can't give away their electric cars. Is it any different in Berlin or are you referring to gas/diesel Audis?
- bryanlarsen 11mo agoThe VW group sells 13 different vehicles built on the MEB platform. The id.4 alone sells comparably to the Tesla Y, but if you consider all 13 the same car they are far and away the best selling car in Europe. Considering all 13 the same might be a stretch, but if you just take the 6 that are the same size as the id.4 you still end up with the same result.
- submeta 11mo agoElon promised too much (self driving cars coming next month, this time for real), and the market has realized that after the 25th promise, he‘s not going to deliver. Also, Elon should have stick to cars and rockets. His venturing into politics, and into media (with buying X) didn’t help him either. He got demystified, and demolished his image of a super focused half-einstein, half-edison. Now more of an half-Trump. And that didn’t help his car sales either.
- hiddencost 11mo agoIt wasn't a promise, it was a lie.
- afavour 11mo agoIt'll be interesting to see how this plays out. Tesla has been way, way overvalued for a very long time. If that starts to change I suspect it'll change very quickly and Musk's status might see a dramatic change.
- Iulioh 11mo agoIf Tesla's valuation had to follow earnings it would not even be in the SNP500
- Forgeties79 11mo agoYou could say that about a lot of companies right now to be honest. It’s kind of wild how detached from reality some stocks are. But there’s no denying that Tesla is one of the most egregious examples.
- fundatus 11mo agoInteresting, not only is Tesla 50% down YTD, but it seems like BYD almost caught up with them: 15,595 (Tesla) vs. 15,171 (BYD)
- chollida1 11mo ago> Interesting, not only is Tesla 50% down YTD, TSLA is not down 50% YTD. Its up this year so far. Can you show the math that shows it down 50% YTD?
- fundatus 11mo agoI am talking about the numbers in the article (Tesla sales in Germany), not the stock: > The number of Teslas sold in the January-October period dropped 50.4% to 15,595 units, compared with the same period last year.
- senordevnyc 11mo agoTSLA believers have long since forgotten that these four characters are connected to a company that is ostensibly supposed to be selling cars. It might as well be an NFT to them.
- chollida1 11mo agoOH, ok, glad I asked then:) Appreciate the explanation.
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- mk89 11mo agoIt's literally written in the article: > The number of Teslas sold in the January-October period dropped 50.4% to 15,595 units, compared with the same period last year. YoY is -50%.
- breve 11mo agoSwasticars don't sell well. The main problem with Musk's proposed pay deal is that he still gets paid billions even if he continues to fail: https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/musks-record-tesla-package-will-pay-him-tens-billions-even-if-he-misses-most-2025-10-09/ https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/musks-record-tes... Tesla's sales target is now to have sold 20 million cars in total by 2035. That's fewer cars in total in what will then be the 32 year history of the company than Toyota sold in the last two years: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/business/elon-musk-tesla-pay-trillionaire.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/business/elon-musk-tesla-... Tesla's target used to be 20 million per year: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-drops-reference-its-goal-delivering-20-mln-vehicles-annually-impact-report-2024-05-23/ https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-... But Tesla's board doesn't care. They got theirs: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/business/tesla-stock-sales-robyn-denholm.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/business/tesla-stock-sale... https://www.afr.com/technology/life-changing-wealth-stopped-denholm-standing-up-to-musk-judge-20240131-p5f1ci https://www.afr.com/technology/life-changing-wealth-stopped-...
- yalogin 11mo agoWe know why the decline is happening. However, I am more curious to see how long people's memory will last. Also a little surprised that there isn't a whole lot of decline in the US.
- mk89 11mo agoThis is not just German related, apparently. It seems Tesla sales in EU are falling since 2023 [0]. And it seems that until now, Tesla sales in Eu are 30% less than last year [1] There is more competition, finally. [0]: https://www.benzinga.com/tech/25/01/43092840/tesla-struggles-in-europe-as-new-registrations-fall-13-in-2024-driving-first-global-delivery-decline-in-years https://www.benzinga.com/tech/25/01/43092840/tesla-struggles... [1]: https://electrek.co/2025/11/03/tesla-tsla-keeps-getting-battered-in-europes-ev-market/ https://electrek.co/2025/11/03/tesla-tsla-keeps-getting-batt...
- ChrisArchitect 11mo ago[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45826384 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45826384
- LightBug1 11mo agoWhen I think of Tesla, I think Elon Musk sweeping up some garbage on the street while simultaneously taking a dump on it ... I'll never buy a Tesla. Personally, Musk has delivered generational toxicity to their brand. And he now seeks to be rewarded for that. The Board is dysfunctional.