Tesla sales in Europe almost halved in April amid an ongoing backlash against CEO Elon Musk.
Despite overall battery-powered car sales in Europe climbing by more than a third, Tesla’s sales last month were down 49 percent year-on-year, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA).
The company sold just 7,261 vehicles in Europe in April. Analysts have suggested the downturn is due in no small part to Musk’s close involvement with the Trump administration through the controversial cost-cutting task force Department of Government Efficiency.
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His work there appears to have caused severe reputational damage to some of his companies.
The January-April period painted a bleak picture for Tesla in particular, with European sales down 40 percent year-on-year, according to CNBC. The world’s richest man has since re-committed to his beloved EV maker, but the data suggests the damage is already done.
Tesla’s decline has also coincided with a surge in competition, with Europeans increasingly favoring the cheaper Chinese EV maker BYD. Data from JATO Dynamics showed that BYD is outpacing Tesla in Europe, despite heavy tariffs on China. In the same period of Tesla’s slump, BYD sales rose 359 percent. JATO put Musk’s EV maker’s dip at 49 percent.
Felipe Munoz, global automotive analyst at JATO, said the data details a “watershed moment.”
Drivers from the continent also appear to prefer hybrid cars, which use both battery power and traditional fuel, instead of the fully electric vehicles offered by Tesla.
Protests at Tesla dealerships and charging stations erupted across the U.S. in response to Musk’s support for Trump and his agenda of radically cutting the federal government. Cars were spray-painted, banged up, carved into, and burned.
Europe has also seen unrest, with Tesla vehicles targeted in response to Musk’s outspoken support for Germany’s far-right AfD party.
Musk has since committed to devoting more time to Tesla. He revealed after the company’s poor earnings report last month that he will step back from his work with the Department of Government Efficiency in May and return to his private sector work.
“Starting next month, May, my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly,” Musk told Tesla investors, according to CNN.
“There’s been some blowback for the time that I’ve been spending in government with DOGE. I think the work that we’re doing there is actually very important.”
Musk has also faced blowback from some in the GOP who have come to see him as a political liability.
The candidate he backed with a record $21 million in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race suffered a crushing defeat last month, and, as one GOP operative told Politico, Musk “polls terrible.”
