Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) saw its new car sales in Europe drop 27.9% in May compared to the same month last year, despite a 27.2% jump in fully-electric vehicle sales across the region.
The U.S. electric vehicle maker’s market share in Europe fell to 1.2% in May from 1.8% a year ago, marking the fifth consecutive month of declining sales. This comes as customers increasingly choose cheaper Chinese electric vehicles or express dissatisfaction with CEO Elon Musk’s political positions.
Overall car sales in Europe increased by 1.9% to 1.11 million vehicles in May, following a 0.3% decrease in April, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association ( ACEA (BIT:ACE)).
Chinese manufacturers continued their strong performance in the European market despite EU tariffs on Chinese EVs. They sold 65,808 cars in May and doubled their market share to 5.9%, based on data from Jato Dynamics. BYD (SZ:002594) nearly matched Tesla’s registration numbers in May, after outselling the American company in April.
Tesla’s revised Model Y has yet to reverse the company’s declining fortunes in Europe as traditional automakers and Chinese competitors rapidly launch new electric vehicles amid growing trade tensions.
Among major automakers, Chinese state-owned SAIC Motor saw registrations increase by 22.5% and Germany’s BMW (ETR:BMWG) rose by 5.6%, while Japan’s Mazda experienced a 23% decline.
In the European Union specifically, total car sales have decreased by 0.6% so far this year. However, demand for electric vehicles continues to grow, with registrations of battery-electric, plug-in hybrid, and hybrid-electric cars rising 26.1%, 15%, and 19.8% respectively.
Combined sales of these electrified vehicles accounted for 58.9% of passenger car registrations in the EU during May, up from 48.9% in May 2024.
Looking at individual EU markets, Spain and Germany saw new car sales increase by 18.6% and 1.2% respectively, while France and Italy experienced decreases of 12.3% and 0.1%. In Britain, registrations rose by 1.6%.