(Bloomberg/Craig Trudell) — Tesla Inc. sales kept sliding across Europe’s biggest electric-car markets in April, despite the company rolling out an updated version of its most popular vehicle.
The company registered only 512 new vehicles last month in the UK, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said Tuesday, down 62% from a year earlier. Tesla’s plunge was even more pronounced in Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, with sales dropping by at least two-thirds in each country.
Tesla saw steep declines in eight of Europe’s 10 largest EV markets even as it started shipping the redesigned Model Y sport utility vehicle to customers. Changing over production lines at assembly plants around the globe — including in Germany — cost the company several weeks of output early this year and contributed to the company’s worst quarterly sales since 2022.
The slump continuing into April suggests that Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk’s antics and work for US President Donald Trump is costing Tesla sales, in spite of the company sprucing up its lineup. The CEO has been a top adviser for an administration waging a global trade war and rethinking the US’s role in alliances including NATO.
Related Articles
Letters: Trump’s AmeriCorps cuts are not making America great
OpenAI to remain under non-profit control in change of restructuring plans
Angel Island exhibit explores border surveillance tech
Homebuyers’ dilemma: As Trump tariffs swing stock market, hold off? Or ‘buy the dip’?
California job market flops as it lands near bottom among US states
Tesla shares fell as much as 2% before the start of regular trading. The stock has fallen 42% from its record high reached in mid-December.
The UK was a rare exception for Tesla in the first quarter, with the company seeing a 6% increase in registrations. But while Tesla managed to grow, it lagged well behind the 43% jump in industrywide sales of battery-electric vehicles.
After the precipitous drop in April, Tesla’s sales are down 1% through the first four months of the year.
In Germany — by far the biggest EV market among European Union member states — Tesla’s sales fell 46% even as overall electric-car registrations jumped 53% last month.
While the Model Y topped the sales charts in Norway last month, the nation’s road federation noted in its monthly statement that Tesla’s overall sales are “nowhere near the level we are used to.”
“It may be a sign that many people now find that other brands are just as interesting and have just as much to offer in roughly the same price segment,” said Oyvind Solberg Thorsen, director of the Norwegian Road Federation.
(Updates with detail on UK, Germany and Norway sales starting in the sixth paragraph.)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
