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
Tesla now is definitely in panic mode! In my country they slashed the price of the model 3 by 4000 euro AND they’re doing mystery shopping inspections like the traditional carmakers!
I make beer money with mystery shopping (Corporations pay me $2/hour to go to pretend to buy their product in their stores to report the customer experience). Traditional carmakers ask this to do all the time: KIA wants pictures of their ads in their dealers to see if the match the guidelines, Ford wants to know if i ask a oil change what price I will be quoted, Honda wants to know what people will be told if they ask to test drive a CBR650, and so on.
New this month… TESLA! They never had to resort to this kind of stuff, that means they’re desperate.