2025 hasn’t been Tesla’s year. We have witnessed a never-ending series of embarrassments, from the complete failure of the Cybertruck to the painfully bad rollout of Robotaxis, which were referred to by the public as “Swasticars” due to Musk’s previous faux “Roman salute”. And the cherry on top of this miserable cake was the consumer response — the public gave Tesla the “Roman middle finger”, also known as a boycott. That, combined with every other EV maker taking enormous leaps forward over the past year, pushed Tesla sales so low that the company is now functionally unprofitable, with only emissions credits keeping them from posting a loss. With 2026 looming on the horizon, it doesn’t appear that things will improve for Tesla anytime soon. In fact, things are about to get a whole lot worse.
Take Tesla’s European sales figures. Tesla sold just 6,600 new vehicles in Europe in July, which is a 42.4% fall from the same month last year. That is, even though overall EV sales in Europe are up significantly. This marks a seventh consecutive month of significantly declining sales for Tesla in the region, which, let’s not forget, is one of Tesla’s most important markets, especially when you consider that it will soon be the only large, Western-aligned market with pro-EV legislation.
At the same time, Tesla’s main rivals, Chinese EV makers, are making considerable gains in Europe, despite tariffs. For example, BYD sold a whopping 13,503 cars in July, a 225% increase from the same period last year. This means that Tesla’s sales drop is not leaving a vacuum that they can easily expand into later down the line. Other brands are soaking up consumers, gaining loyalty and brand recognition from Tesla’s customers.
And this is why things for Tesla are going to get so much worse in 2026 and beyond, particularly in Europe, because substantially better EVs are coming.
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