Elon Musk finally has something to celebrate in Europe: Tesla’s new car sales fell by about a third in August.
The good news is that things could have been a lot worse.
Throughout much of this year, the market has consistently failed to respond to Musk’s stimulus efforts with price cuts, discounted financing rates and, as in the case of the Model 3, Refreshed light design It was an old continent.
With plenty of choice in a stagnant overall auto market, Europeans are opting for rival brands with newer vehicles better suited to their roads, and as a result, Tesla has been losing market share steadily since March.
After disproportionately sluggish sales month after month, Tesla’s new car registrations fell to the exact same level as the overall European EV market in August, providing a much-needed relief.
According to The data released on Thursday Tesla’s sales fell 36% year-over-year to just 21,701 vehicles last month, according to industry group ACEA.
This decline is broadly in line with EV demand across the European market, which includes EU member states as well as non-EU countries such as the UK, Switzerland and Norway, which saw EV sales fall by a similar amount in August.
“The electric vehicle market is currently experiencing a sustained downward trend,” ACEA said in a statement.
China looks bright
While August is one of the weakest months on the calendar in terms of car sales, demand for EVs in Europe also fell in May and July before remaining flat in June.
As a result, the European EV market shrank by 5.5% in the first eight months to 1.21 million units, while when other powertrains such as hybrids are included, overall demand only grew by 1.7%.
Due to increased competition, Tesla’s sales decline over the same eight-month period was more dramatic, falling 15.8% to just over 200,000 units.
Meanwhile, Tesla’s performance has been more encouraging, with China on track for a record third quarter, though that’s partly due to unattractive financing rates squeezing profit margins.
$TSLA China saw another strong performance with policyholder sign-ups reaching 15,600 during the week of September 9-15. Eleven weeks in, with two weeks left in the quarter, TSLA China’s Q3 sign-ups are up from their strongest quarter ever, +20% YoY and +26% QoQ. Source: Tsurachan Pillory pic.twitter.com/cHuuYv97gp
— Gary Black (@garyblack00) September 19, 2024
“I’m very worried.”
Europe is quite different, where competition comes mainly from other European companies that are strongly incentivized to sell a significant proportion of EVs in order to avoid prohibitively high regulatory fines imposed by the European Commission in Brussels.
The BMW brand overtook Tesla as Europe’s market leader for the first time in July, according to the latest monthly report. Numbers From market research firm JATO Dynamics.
But the overall EV market saw a big drop in August, leaving automakers reeling under fears they could be hit with billions of euros in fines.
ACEA is Most car manufacturers Tesla, which operates in Europe, European Commission Take steps to stimulate demand for EVs.
“The electric vehicle market is currently experiencing a sustained downward trend,” the company said on Thursday, calling recent signs of demand “extremely worrying.”
Tesla is luck Request for Comments.
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