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

  • thejml@lemm.ee
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    3 days ago

    Elon Musk is probably the single worst thing for Tesla. Sure the FSD that drives into trains and lakes and people is a problem, but you can potentially fix or mitigate that with OTA updates and recalls.

    If the Tesla board was smart, they’d fire Elon as before he tarnishes the brand even further.

    • takeda@lemm.ee
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      3 days ago

      The thing is that he also was the reason why the stock was so inflated in the first place. I think that’s why they still keep him.

      If they remove him out likely will fall further, on the other hand if no one is buying their cars the company is nothing but a scam stock.

  • Moonrise2473
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    3 days ago

    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.

    showing some mystery shops

  • Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io
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    3 days ago

    “Risks turning off car buyers and sinking … stock” Damage is already done, and continues. This isn’t a risk, it’s already happened.

  • ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    3 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.

      • ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 days ago

        You’re correct, in my frustration I did shitty math

        I leave my post unedited to expose my shame

        Edit upon further reflection I did edit my post only to highlight my shame as it appears this got buried and I do not want to promote misinformation

        • AckPhttt@beehaw.org
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          3 days ago

          I’m on the DOGE team, and those values seem completely accurate and verified to me. /s

          Edit: And if they are wrong, by our accounting that means that you just saved the government $399.6 Billion dollars.

    • Moonrise2473
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      3 days ago

      that budget was allocated by the biden admin. It means trump will 100% cancel it “just because”.

      Also: trump cancelled a contract with chargepoint to keep online all the EV chargers in the federal facilities. If they buy those armored teslas then they won’t have a place to charge them anymore

      • MutilationWave@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 days ago

        Just be aware that if you were to do something atrocious like tax fraud, now would be the time to do it. I got audited once before (I was and remain clean), but this makes me 10X more likely to be audited in the future.

  • Pete Hahnloser@beehaw.org
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    3 days ago

    Tesla stock has been wildly inflated on just a P/E basis for at least a decade at this point. Musk has gone from asset to ass … I mean, “liability.” Not great, but not his problem. Not like he’s going to be panhandling if he loses $100 billion.

    • jarfil@beehaw.org
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      3 days ago

      Like every good billionaire, he’s been playing the stock game by taking on loans and exchanging stock, based on valuation (aka: hype). If the valuation plummets, then depending on his exposure, he could default on those loans and end up penniless.

      We don’t know his exposure level, he’s been avoiding anything that would require disclosing all his assets and liabilities, so we’ll have to wait and see.

    • melp@beehaw.org
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      21 hours ago

      I flip every single one off when I see them. Petty and childish? Yes. I can live with it.