Tesla's German car sales more than halve in October as wider EV sales jump
81 comments
·November 5, 2025KaiserPro
Part of this is down to musk being an obnoxious prick, but a larger part is down to teslas not actually being innovative, cheap or high quality enough any more.
They look dated, or weird, have patchy customer service, and are not even that long range anymore.
pimeys
They are all over Berlin as rentals, which you can rent from your phone, and pay per kilometer. People can test drive them easily, and they are not super nice cars. We much prefer the Audis, Toyotas, and Volkswagens that are also in the pool.
rstupek
From US sales, Audi can't give away their electric cars. Is it any different in Berlin or are you referring to gas/diesel Audis?
bryanlarsen
The VW group sells 13 different vehicles built on the MEB platform. The id.4 alone sells comparably to the Tesla Y, but if you consider all 13 the same car they are far and away the best selling car in Europe.
Considering all 13 the same might be a stretch, but if you just take the 6 that are the same size as the id.4 you still end up with the same result.
pimeys
Gas/diesel mostly.
mk89
This is not just German related, apparently. It seems Tesla sales in EU are falling since 2023 [0].
And it seems that until now, Tesla sales in Eu are 30% less than last year [1]
There is more competition, finally.
[0]: https://www.benzinga.com/tech/25/01/43092840/tesla-struggles...
[1]: https://electrek.co/2025/11/03/tesla-tsla-keeps-getting-batt...
fundatus
Interesting, not only is Tesla 50% down YTD, but it seems like BYD almost caught up with them:
15,595 (Tesla) vs. 15,171 (BYD)
chollida1
> Interesting, not only is Tesla 50% down YTD,
TSLA is not down 50% YTD. Its up this year so far.
Can you show the math that shows it down 50% YTD?
mk89
It's literally written in the article:
> The number of Teslas sold in the January-October period dropped 50.4% to 15,595 units, compared with the same period last year.
YoY is -50%.
fundatus
I am talking about the numbers in the article (Tesla sales in Germany), not the stock:
> The number of Teslas sold in the January-October period dropped 50.4% to 15,595 units, compared with the same period last year.
null
yalogin
We know why the decline is happening. However, I am more curious to see how long people's memory will last. Also a little surprised that there isn't a whole lot of decline in the US.
afavour
It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. Tesla has been way, way overvalued for a very long time. If that starts to change I suspect it'll change very quickly and Musk's status might see a dramatic change.
Iulioh
If Tesla's valuation had to follow earnings it would not even be in the SNP500
moosedman
I don’t understand how the Tesla fanboys don’t realize how badly he’s torched his consumer base with his politics…
TheAlchemist
It's not only politics, although it certainly didn't help.
Tesla did not release new cars, except for Cybertruck, for how long ? 5 years ? 10 years ?
Their lineup was great initially, and there was 0 competition. Now there is a lot of competition and their lineup did not change at all.
Their car business is dying. That's why they try to be an AI & Robotics company.
Edit: Here is a good link to follow the sales data - for many countries, it's reported daily. https://eu-evs.com/brandCharts/TESLA/ALL_DAILY/QoQ-Chart
yangikan
Does anyone know if Musk's robotics/AI business is under Tesla? What prevents him from launching the robots under a new company? Is there any protection for Tesla investors against these kind of things?
TheAlchemist
Well, if you follow his adventures a bit, it's quite obvious that there is absolutely nothing preventing him from that.
2 years ago, while claiming that Tesla is the leader in AI, he launched a private ... AI company (xAI), for which he took Tesla GPU chips, and now he tries to make Tesla ... invest in said company, at a valuation (>B100$) that could only be compared to something like Dogecoin.
All of this, with your and my retirement money, since the stock is in the S&P.
schiffern
>Tesla did not release new cars, except for Cybertruck, for how long ? 5 years ? 10 years ?
Tesla is battery-limited, not demand-limited (delivery wave concern trolling from OP's headline aside). Adding models would only add complexity without meaningfully increasing revenue.
It helps to know basic fundamental facts about the company before commenting.
>Now there is a lot of competition and their lineup did not change at all.
See Sandy Munro's excellent breakdowns on the phenomenal pace of innovation at Tesla compared to competitors.
bydo
Why weren't they "battery limited" when they were making more cars?
TheAlchemist
Not demand limited ? Yeah sure, CEO once said that they have infinite demand (at the right price /s).
If they are not demand limited, can you explain why they slashed prices, are offering countless promotions which evaporated their margins, and are running the factories at 50% capacity ?
azakai
Some data on how badly he torched his consumer base: a Yale study says Tesla lost 1.26 million US sales due to Musk's politics.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/cars/news/2025/10/28/tesla-lo...
Night_Thastus
Aside from politics, their cars have a reputation for poor quality control. Peeling steering wheels, leaking seals, funky air conditioner smells, etc. Then when there are problems you may be waiting months while it sits in a service center. Or the stupid thing may shut off (due to errors or updates) right when you need it.
I would not want to buy one of them for any of those reasons, regardless.
mattmaroon
And they don’t have CarPlay. I was considering one but then I started dating a girl who drives a Model Y. So many little things wrong. Like the vent fan rattles, leather peels, etc. And when you get even a minor ding in the exterior, good luck.
justapassenger
Not releasing any new model in half a decade (let's forget about cybertruck - tesla already did) didn't help either.
schiffern
Nope, bad strategy advice.
Tesla is battery-limited, not demand-limited. Adding models would only add complexity without meaningfully increasing revenue.
It helps to know basic fundamental facts about the company.
mjamesaustin
Please explain how a demand limited company is seeing dramatic reductions in its annual sales? They used to be demand-limited. Not today.
BigTTYGothGF
> Tesla is ... not demand-limited
Per the article, this no longer seems to be the case.
mentalfist
Delusional take. Look at sales and/or inventory trends over the past year. The demand is clearly crashing, and for many good reasons
null
preezer
You are absolutely right. I live in Germany. Me and many of my friends considered Tesla as a real alternative, but after his lunacy came to light, none of us will even think of driving one.
01100011
I'm still seeing quite a few new Teslas in San Diego(arguably a more conservative city by CA standards).
Someone is still giving him money for some reason.
jstummbillig
Why would you assume that's not the case? Knowing something has gone wrong is different to putting effort into ensuring the general public is aware that you know something has gone wrong.
LightBug1
Excellent news. Thanks.
submeta
Elon promised too much (self driving cars coming next month, this time for real), and the market has realized that after the 25th promise, he‘s not going to deliver.
Also, Elon should have stick to cars and rockets. His venturing into politics, and into media (with buying X) didn’t help him either. He got demystified, and demolished his image of a super focused half-einstein, half-edison. Now more of an half-Trump. And that didn’t help his car sales either.
hiddencost
It wasn't a promise, it was a lie.
Swasticars don't sell well.
The main problem with Musk's proposed pay deal is that he still gets paid billions even if he continues to fail:
https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/musks-record-tes...
Tesla's sales target is now to have sold 20 million cars in total by 2035. That's fewer cars in total in what will then be the 32 year history of the company than Toyota sold in the last two years:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/business/elon-musk-tesla-...
Tesla's target used to be 20 million per year:
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-...
But Tesla's board doesn't care. They got theirs:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/business/tesla-stock-sale...
https://www.afr.com/technology/life-changing-wealth-stopped-...