Tesla sales tanking in Europe, Elon will try to conceal his far-right political actions
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It turns out that the market for electric cars and the market for fash politics do not have a great deal of overlap:
Tesla sales in Europe and the U.K. have fallen by nearly half, according to data released Tuesday by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association. In April, Tesla sold 7,261 vehicles in the European Union, European Free Trade Association, and U.K., a 49% year-over-year decline.
The fall in sales is particularly alarming considering Tesla recently launched a new Model Y vehicle, the kind of release that would typically attract more consumers. A closer look at car sales in the region shows that Tesla competitors have not experienced the same decline, suggesting that CEO Elon Musk’s political activities and alignment with U.S. President Donald Trump have had an outsized effect on the brand.
Tesla sales have struggled for months globally. Tesla recorded 336,681 deliveries, its worst quarterly performance in more than two years. That dip in sales came as Musk led DOGE, the “advisory body” that laid off thousands of federal employees and attempted to eliminate entire agencies and programs. His involvement in the government has proven so unpopular that Musk publicly stated he would refocus his efforts back on Tesla.
In April, new car registrations in the EU, U.K., and EFTA countries like Sweden and Norway fell 0.3 percent to 1,077,186 units year-over-year, with the gas and diesel vehicles seeing the largest declines.
The delay in introducing a new Model Y was the excuse apologists had for the last report of declining sales; I guess that’s no longer operative.
What’s happening now is that:
1)Elon is going to claim that he’s stepping back from political spending and involvement with Trump.
2)Media reports will credulously repeat these assertions as fact.
3)He will not actually stop his political spending or his work with DOGE, he just wants to be able to do so more quietly to do less damage to both the Tesla and MAGA brands.
he's one of the biggest, most-frequent liars in the world. among other things, he said the same thing last summer, before becoming the largest-ever campaign donor in American history. Yet this post by Baker and the headline treats his statement as true. don't print lies in the newspaper!
[image or embed]— mtsw (@mtsw.bsky.social) May 20, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Usually there's some "uh technically" wiggle room where you justify printing the lie by pointing out that you're just reporting what he said. But the headline is "plans" and there's no indication that he actually plans to do this besides his own claims, the claims of a known, frequent, massive liar.— mtsw (@mtsw.bsky.social) May 20, 2025 at 4:57 PM
If some reporters could skip #2, that would be great.