Elon Musk appears be to turning off potential Tesla buyers with his embrace of far-right politicians around the world, analysts say, and the hit couldn't come at a worse time.

Tesla sales plunged 45% in Europe in January, according to research firm Jato Dynamics, even as overall electric vehicle sales rose. That comes after a report of falling sales in California, its biggest U.S. market, and the first annual drop globally for the company last year.

“I don’t even want to drive it,” said Model 3 owner John Parnell, a Democrat from Ross, California, adding that he also is cancelling his order for the company’s Cybertruck, losing a $100 deposit. “He’s destroying the brand with his politics.”

The sales numbers were particularly bad in Germany and France in January, down roughly 60% each, more than the average decline for the more than two-dozen European countries surveyed. Sales in France fell another 26% in February.

More worrisome was the breakdown for Tesla’s individual models. Sales of Tesla’s Model 3 dropped 33% across all European countries even though that car is not being updated and there is no reason for buyers to wait

  •  ragebutt   ( @ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English
    10•29 days ago

    The fuck does he care? He is replacing a large chunk of consumer buyers that have shaky purchasing power with government contracts which will pay up front. 2025 defense budget has 400 million allocated for armored teslas. This is over 4x teslas annual revenue at its highest point (96 billion in 2023)

    The stock will bounce to new heights once he can report a revenue of almost half a trillion dollars (of your taxes)

    Edit: as @powderhorn pointed out my math is significantly off by a major factor. I leave my post intact because I fucked up.