(Reuters)-Tesla’s electric vehicle sales in Europe fell in February and were behind the traditional Volkswagen brand and the BMW group, as well as China’s rivals, showed data from the Jato Dynamics research platform on Monday.
The totally electric brand is facing a loyalty test in Europe, after its CEO, Elon Musk, close to US President Donald Trump, openly supported far right parties on the continent, with at least two dozens of posts on its X platform promoting the Alternative Fur Deutschland from Germany.
Musk’s role in politics, increasing competition in the electric vehicle market and the gradual elimination of the existing version of its best -selling vehicle, Model Y, impacted sales, Felipe Munoz, a global Dynamics jet analyst, said in a report.
“Brands like Tesla, which have a line of relatively limited models, are particularly vulnerable to registration falls when making a model change,” Munoz said.
Tesla’s battery electric vehicle records in 25 European Union markets in the UK, Norway and Switzerland fell an average of 44% over the same month of 2024 for less than 16,000 cars sold in February. His market share in the month has fallen to 9.6%, the lowest of February in the last five years.
By comparison, Volkswagen’s BEV sales increased 180%to less than 20,000 cars, while the BMW brand and the mini, owned by BMW, together, sold nearly 19,000 BEVs in February, showed the numbers.
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Chinese -owned, combined brands also sold more electric cars than Tesla, Jato Dynamics said.
BYD’s and polestar bee sales in the same markets increased 94% and 84% respectively to over 4,000 and over 2,000 cars. Xpeng sold over 1,000 cars and leapmotor almost 900.
Volvo’s sales of Volvo, owned by Geely, and MG, owned by SAIC, on the other hand, fell 30% and 67% respectively, showed the data.
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Total car sales in 25 European Union markets in the United Kingdom, Norway and Switzerland fell by 3%to 0.97 million in February, while BEV records increased by 25%.
