No One Is Buying Teslas
Sales of Musk's "swastikars" have plummeted. What a shock!
It’s fair to say the backlash to Musk’s actions has been monumental, and I have already discussed the immense impact this will have on Tesla (read more here and here). But sadly, I am not finished, because some of what I and many others predicted has already come true. In fact, it’s even worse than what many thought possible. Tesla sales have gone down faster than a Starship launch!
The brilliant people over at Electrek found that Tesla sales for Jan ’24 compared to Jan ’25 were down a whopping 63% in France, 40% in the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, 31% in Portugal, and 18% in the UK! When you take into account the fact that Musk Sieg Heil saluted on Jan 20th, a third of the way through the month, it suggests that real-world sales of Teslas over the past few weeks in France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Portugal were practically zero. Meanwhile, the UK’s percentage could also be deceptive. UK Teslas are made in Germany and, as such, have to cut through miles of Brexit red tape before reaching customers. This can delay the delivery of a new car by around four weeks. Moreover, it seems the data Electrek is using for the UK is based on completed sales. In other words, for the UK, sales are only counted once the car is delivered. While I cannot fully confirm this theory, it would explain why Tesla sales in the UK are so much greater than the rest of Europe, as the data Electrek are using could be counting cars ordered in December, whereas Europe is counting cars ordered in January.
And it isn’t just Europe; Tesla sales are down in California, the US’s biggest EV market, by 11.6%! Just a reminder, this state is full of Silicon Valley cyberlibertarians, people who share Musk’s batshit political views. Yet even they are distancing themselves from him.
Some have tried to suggest that these numbers aren’t as bad as they seem because EV sales are down across the board. But that isn’t the case. The total volume of EV sales in Europe increased by 9.5% over 2024 and 1.2% in the US. Sure, this growth is less than expected, but it is still growth.
So why have these sales collapsed? I will give you three guesses…
It’s no coincidence that Tesla sales have collapsed the fastest in countries that still carry the physical and mental scars of Nazi occupation. Europe is littered with vestigial remnants of this barbaric regime, from bomb craters to concrete reinforcements and unexploded munitions scattered around the place. So it should come as no surprise that a recent poll found that around 75% of Brits and Germans view Musk’s political actions as unacceptable, and another recent survey found that only 11% of Swedes see Musk favourably. Moreover, another study of X posts over 2024 found that only 19.2% of the US posted favourably about Musk. That’s right, the platform Musk has purposely ruined and made a breeding ground for neo-Nazis and white supremacists still overwhelmingly hates him.
Why does all of this matter?
This backlash has been growing for years, thanks to Musk’s bonkers rhetoric and shady business decisions. But his “Roman salute” on Jan 20th enabled the world to solidify their thoughts on Musk and realise he is just a raging fascistic moron. As such, we have only had a few weeks of the world actively pushing back against this. And as Musk makes even more of a tit of himself with DOGE, and the world is impacted as American soft power is decapitated, this sentiment will only deepen. I think these disastrous sales figures only foreshadow what is to come.
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Sources: Electrek, Electrek, Gizmodo, Brussel Times, Politico, MP, Exploding Topics, YouGov, Xcite