Image from YouTube (Video uploaded by Chris Norlund on February 27, 2025)
In 2025, Tesla, once the undisputed leader in the electric vehicle (EV) industry, has encountered a significant and unexpected challenge: a sharp decline in global sales. While the EV market continues to expand, Tesla’s dominance has eroded, with competitors gaining ground and consumer sentiment shifting. Among the many factors contributing to this downturn, one stands out as the primary driver: the “Musk factor.” Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO and public face, has long been both an asset and a liability for the company. This year, his controversial behaviour, leadership decisions, and public persona have become the central reason behind Tesla’s sales slump.
January and February 2025 have been brutal for Tesla across multiple regions. In Europe, registrations – a proxy for sales – plunged 45% year-over-year in January, with Germany (down 76% in February) and France (down 63%) leading the collapse. Scandinavia, once a Tesla stronghold, saw sales drop by 42–48% in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. In Australia, deliveries fell 65.5% in the first two months, while China, Tesla’s second-largest market, reported a 49% decline in February sales to 30,688 units. Even in the U.S., Tesla’s home turf, sales slid 13% in January, with California – a critical EV hub – registering an 11.6% annual drop in 2024 that worsened into 2025.
These figures contrast sharply with Tesla’s historical performance. The company sold 1.75 million vehicles in 2023, and despite a slight decline in 2024, it remained a market leader. However, 2025’s early data suggests a steeper fall, with production (1.77 million in 2024) and deliveries no longer keeping pace with past growth expectations – like Elon Musk’s once-touted goal of 20 million annual sales by 2030.
Elon Musk has always been a polarising figure. His visionary leadership and relentless drive for innovation have been instrumental in Tesla’s rise to prominence. However, his recent actions and public persona have alienated a significant portion of Tesla’s customer base and eroded trust in the brand.
Since acquiring Twitter (now X) in late 2022, Musk has been embroiled in a series of controversies that have spilled over into Tesla’s brand image. By 2025, his polarising tweets, public feuds, and endorsement of divisive political views have turned off many potential buyers. Tesla’s core customer base – environmentally conscious, tech-savvy, and progressive – has increasingly found Musk’s behaviour at odds with their values.
Musk’s involvement with multiple ventures, including X, SpaceX, Neuralink, and his newer projects, has raised concerns about his focus on Tesla. Investors and customers alike have questioned whether Musk’s attention is divided, potentially hindering Tesla’s ability to innovate and execute its long-term goals.
Musk’s erratic behavior has also impacted consumer confidence in Tesla as a company. His public statements about the economy, including warnings of a potential recession and his downplaying of Tesla’s financial performance, have created uncertainty among buyers. Additionally, his handling of Tesla’s pricing strategy – frequent price cuts and fluctuations – has left customers feeling uncertain about the value of their purchases.
The mainstream narrative often frames Tesla’s woes as a natural market correction – EV adoption slowing as early adopters taper off. But this oversimplifies the story. Global EV sales grew in 2024 (e.g., up 37% in Europe in January 2025), yet Tesla’s share shrank. In Norway, where EVs hit 96% of new car sales, Tesla’s Model Y fell from first to sixth place. This suggests Tesla-specific issues, not a market-wide slump.
Musk’s defenders argue the sales dip is temporary, tied to the Model Y transition, and point to Tesla’s AI and autonomous driving bets as future growth engines. Critics, however, see a company coasting on past laurels, with no major new models (beyond the niche Cybertruck) and a CEO distracted by SpaceX, X Corp, and politics. The sale of millions in stock by Musk’s brother Kimbal and other insiders in early 2025 has only fueled speculation of internal unease.
Tesla’s stock, which soared post-Trump’s 2024 election on hopes of regulatory favors, has shed nearly 30% since January 2025, hovering around $360 from a $424 peak. The Model Y refresh could spark a rebound. Yet, Tesla faces a pivotal year. Can it reclaim its mojo against fierce rivals, navigate Musk’s controversies, and adapt to a shifting policy landscape? Or is this the beginning of a longer decline for a once-unassailable titan?
For now, the data is clear: Tesla’s global sales are tumbling in 2025, and the road ahead looks bumpier than ever.
Elon Musk’s polarising political pivot has undeniably dented Tesla’s brand. His vocal support for Donald Trump, involvement in U.S. policy via the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and gestures like the controversial “Roman salute” at Trump’s 2025 inauguration have sparked backlash. In liberal-leaning markets like California and Europe, consumers are ditching Tesla, with some citing Musk’s alt-right ties as a dealbreaker. Satirical “Swasticar” ads in London and projected swastikas on Tesla’s Berlin Gigafactory underscore the PR crisis. Surveys and X sentiment suggest this reputational hit is real, though its long-term impact remains debated.
The drop in Tesla’s global sales in 2025 may well be a multifaceted issue, but the Musk factor looms large as the primary reason for this decline. Elon Musk’s controversial behavior, divided attention, and eroding public image have alienated customers and damaged Tesla’s brand reputation.
Elon Musk’s foray into politics met with protest that’s hurting Tesla worldwide, Ian Verrender, ABC News
‘Don’t Buy A Swasticar’ Ad Campaign Targets Musk In London, Stephen Rivers, Carscoops
Tesla Sales Are Tanking Across The World, Patrick George, Inside EVs
Tesla sales dropped 1.1 percent in 2024, in first annual decline since 2011, Tim Krisher and Bernard Condon, PBS New
Tesla sales are reportedly falling globally. How bad it is and where, Matt Binder, Mashable
The Latest Tesla Statistics, Buyacar
Tesla’s Worst Performing Markets As Global Sales Plummet, Hugh Cameron, Newsweek
Tesla’s sales drop double digits in the US’ biggest EV market, while others are growing, Fred Lambert, Electrek
Data show Tesla sales declined sharply in Europe, Camila Domonoske, NPR
Tesla sales down in France, Scandinavia as Musk faces test of brand, Terje Solsvik and Louise Rasmussen, Reuter
Tesla sales are dropping around the world, Rani Molla, Sherwood News
Tesla Sales Fall Off A Cliff Globally, Including Germany, Australia, And China, Brad Anderson, Carscoops
Tesla EV Sales Statistics, Road Genius
Tesla sales are plunging around the world: Is this just a Musk problem?, Giles Parkinson and Amalyah Hart, The Driven
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I will not now associate myself with USA sourced, goods, news, media, anything. This can join other areas where an older tired chap cannot be bothered with analysising and reducing shit, deliberate, lying, deceiving, self fixated shit of all types. I travelled, in Reagan's time there, met plenty of good friendly people, but, times have changed for the rotten. Reagan cut education funding and a Uni bloc was left unroofed, to just rot. One ex-USA friend has been in Australia since, to get away from such ignorant deliberate vandalism. Selfsaturating selfdeluding filth is uncivilised...as for this hun horde of such as Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg, etc, and the daggy droppings under Trump, the world needs No New Caligula, Attila, Adolf, Josef or any arsehole skinful of humanoid excrement.
It's quite ironic that Trump, a climate change denier who loudly promotes in "drill baby drill", should employ and allow free reign to a man who's cars are lauded by people who care about climate change.
Personally I have no opinion about how good the cars are, as I don't own one but several people I know do have one and love it. To a person they detest what Trump and Musk are doing to their friends and families in the US - and by extension to other countries including Australia, and say that they will not ever buy another Tesla.
I see the irony in that too, Uncle.
Uncletimrob,
It's more the fact that Orange Man seems to worship those who have untold billions of dollars. He's had an obsession with cash for just about his entire life.
An interesting tid bit (or tit) is that James Murdoch is friends with the other Musk and on Tesla board; guess quite coy about Musk, and especially Musk's infamous family heritage.
Even more ironic now that Trump is going to buy a Tesla - or will he be given it I ask myself? - because boycotting tesla is "illegal"
Tosser doesn't quite sum him up.
So, it seems that Musk got caught with his X security down around his knees. Much easier to blame Ukraine than accept that the stuff up occurred within X.
https://www.wired.com/story/x-ddos-attack-march-2025/
Trump buying a Tesla is ludicrous; first, the man never pays his bills so he's telling Lone Skum to give him one. Second, Trump doesn't even have a driving licence, so he'd need one of those 'self-driving' models - not that he'd be allowed to go off in it by himself because that's counter to standard security protocols. Third, none of the Tesla models are designed or built in accordance with those security protocols, so he'd never be able to go anywhere in it ... except maybe for a tootle across the golf course; hey, maybe Lone Skum could get his crew to build a very special golf cart for the Fanta Menace?
The USA narcissistic cultureless blobs, eg T-Rump, Musk, Bezos and the Techbros etc, are finding out the hard way that $$ and tech brutality, ain't enough. That propaganda finds it increasingly hard to pass the pub test, but now must also pass the academic test. They're not too big to fail. It's the culture stupid.