5mo ago

Tesla demand is nosediving in EV-friendly Europe amid Elon Musk's endorsement of the far right

Summary

Tesla's European sales are plummeting, with Germany seeing a 60% drop despite strong EV growth. Similar declines hit Norway, Sweden, and France.

While some blame the Osborne effect—buyers delaying purchases for a refreshed Model Y—Musk’s endorsement of Germany’s far-right AfD may also be repelling customers.

Online backlash has linked Tesla to fascist imagery. In contrast, UK sales fell only 7.8%, suggesting political factors play a role.

With strong domestic EV competition in Europe, Tesla’s reputation crisis could further hurt demand.

98 comments

weird. i guess some people just arent interested in driving Swasticars
- "Car" is too big a word, "Nazimobil" fits better
  
  Hakencruisers
  
  Deploreans.
  
  Mobil while spelt wrong for a synonym for car, is longer then the word car.
- Fashmobile
  
  There's no H in fascist.
It is fascinating how little this correlates to the Tesla stock price. It has dropped a bit, down 8.4% in the last month, but it still up 80.8% over the last 6 months. I´m curious what kind of business model the shareholders is expecting from Tesla that does not involve selling cars.
- The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent...or sth like that.
  
  "In the short term, the market is a voting machine, but in the long term, it is a weighing machine" - Benjamin Graham ("father" of value investing and mentor to Warren Buffett)
  Meaning that in the short term, stock prices can be swayed from a company's true value by investors' emotions and opinions.
  But eventually the stock price will align with the company's actual profitability and growth potential.
  And you're right that these are crazy times, and the "short term" irrationality can last a lot longer than past experiences.
  Historically, we've used examples like the 17th century tulip mania, or the dot com boom, but it won't surprise me if Tesla becomes the poster child for this quote in the future.
- Judging on the fact that it jumped up after election day, investors are expecting corporate nepotism to boost profits.
- My understanding ia that they get carbon credits for producing EVs which they then sell to carbon producers to offset. They also produce batteries.
  That being said, its not going to take a deep dive unless they have consecutive missed eps targets. Even then though, part of Elons MO is to promose some visonary tech that takes year to peoduce so just sitbtight man becauae im telling you its coming...
  This time around its robots for the home. Laughable not because we dont have the technology, but who has the disposable income to afford it? Even if they come out, and it turns out people buy them (which also means not heing turned off by musk); where is the moat? What stops a competitor like boston dynamics, samsung, etc from seeing it as validation of a market and then entering it?
  
  Even if Musk wasn't a Nazi, he's still a big enough douchebag that I wouldn't want to buy a car associated with him. And even if he wasn't a douchebag, the Cybertruck has demonstrated what kind of stupid shit Tesla does when they take orders from him. And even without Musk's influence, I still wouldn't buy a Tesla because there are so many other options on the market, and people have gotten very vocal about things like the build quality of Tesla cars.
  That's gotta start hurting their stock price at some point.
- The share price isn't based on car sales. If it were just about car sales, it would be about 10% of the price it is now.
  The share price is mostly ridiculous, but it is also people trying to get in early, on the assumption that they solve FSD, battery storage, Optimus (their robot), and battery manufacturing.
  If they solve all of this, then Tesla could 10x again. It's very future dependent, and I think that future is a lot longer away than a lot of other shareholders think.
  I got in at ~$20 per share. I've significantly reduced my position over the last few months, but I do still believe in the original mission of Tesla. I just don't think they're going to get there with Elon.
  
  IMHO only FSD is something they could potentially achieve, but it took them so long the competition is catching up. At least in Europe (where Teslas have barely functioning traffic sign recognition) other manufacturers have level 3 ADAS in production. Like legally certified and everything.
  Their batteries ( both mobile and grid storage) are nothing special, the 4680 is MiA, catl and BYD have bigger market shares already, I don't know about Panasonic and other manufacturers, could be too.
  And the robot is vaporware unless proven otherwise.
  I'm not a gambler so I won't short it (Elon can give himself trillions in government assistance now), but sure as hell wouldn't hold it anymore.
- In my opinion this shows how fucking unrelated the whole financial sector is to reality.
  It should be shut down or unrelated to the real world.
- I imagine that the federal government will be buying Teslas by the shipload
  The army will be replacing humvees with cybertrucks.
  Tesla will announce a CyberTank to replace the M1
  i'm only sort of joking
  Edit: HA! fucking called it
You couldn’t pay me to drive one
- Dude every single time one of my uber/lyft drivers picks me up in a Tesla, I alwats have some kind of issue. The door handles fail to extend to let me get in (what problem was this design even solving?), when I’m inside the way to open the door is so counter-intuitive even after doing it a few times it still takes me way too long to get it open (dumbest design ever…it’s just a button?), the seatbelt buckle doesn’t click, etc.. Cheap fuckin construction.
  Just terrible, stupid, designs. Add in the fascist bullshit? Fucking forget it. This asshole is ruining a good chance to cut down on emissions by being the face of EVs
  
  The door handles were supposed to be more aerodynamic, but other manufacturers have solved the issue more elegantly.
  
  The door handles are just fucking dumb... and on the inside the door release is a... button? Why?
  
  This asshole is ruining a good chance to cut down on emissions by being the face of EVs
  maybe that was the plan
Musk’s clown car of leadership finally careens into reality. When your CEO’s political acumen involves cosplaying as a far-right edgelord, even Europe’s EV adopters—historically tolerant of overpriced gadgets—start side-eyeing the brand. Tesla’s not a car company anymore; it’s a vanity project for a man who thinks “free speech” means platforming Nazis.
Meanwhile, European automakers are quietly eating Tesla’s lunch with actual innovation, not just empty hype. Musk’s fanbase? A shrinking cult of tech bros and crypto gamblers. The rest of us? We’ve moved on to cars that don’t come with a side of embarrassing billionaire tantrums.
Democracy’s broken? Sure. But watching Musk torch his own empire? Chef’s kiss.
- What's the difference between someone cosplaying as a far-right edgelord and an actual far-right edgelord?
  
  The difference? One is a poser draped in the aesthetics of reactionary outrage to court attention and controversy, while the other is fully marinated in the ideology, living and breathing it. The former plays dress-up for clout; the latter believes the costume is their skin.
  But let’s not split hairs—both are toxic. Whether it’s cosplay or conviction, the result is the same: amplifying regressive garbage under the guise of “provocation.” One just happens to be better at monetizing it.
Two of my coworkers were the biggest Elon fanboys and were the first in the office to drive Teslas. That was years ago though. I hear a lot less from them now. I wonder why...
- I'd be bloody embarrassed if I drove one.
  
  The Rivian R3X can't come soon enough.
- I'm probably not your coworker, but it was the case with me. I liked the guy when he was a weird nerd and I liked the car.
  I still like the car to be honest but I'm seriously considering buying a bumper sticker with "I bought this before I knew he was a Nazi".
  No way I'm buying another one as long and he's related to the company in any way.
Can we send another tesla to space with the musk rat tied to it?
- I always like to point out that Mr. "We Must Colonize Mars" is too chickenshit to get on one of his own rockets. Even motherfucking Bezos had enough balls to do that.
  
  Not even just him, but a whole group of other rich people and celebrities.
- still too close. send the sob on a Voyager parts replacement mission.
  nevermind. thats probably one more step on the path to v'ger.
- Strap him to the heatsheild on the next starship flight.
I must say congratulations to Mr. Musk on finally finding that one special picture that will live on in the history books. You wanted to be remembered, and you are well on your way to having the name “Elon” be right up there with “Adolf” when people are choosing names for their children.
- Elon Shitler has a nice ring to it. #PresidentElon please use this hashtag in all your sm post. We need to sew divide wherever we can and baby Trump really cares about shit like this. ✊🏻
- I kind of think this was intentional, because the picture everyone used before this was the dorky one of him jumping at the Trump rally. I'm sure he prefers this one.
  
  I wasn’t thinking of it that way, but you are probably right.
  I was thinking he can’t have real immortality so he settled on being as memorable as possible. But in his twisted conservative mind, maybe this is him wanting to be remembered as a hardass rather than an [insert slur for gay men].
- I bet someday we (the younger side of Lemmy) will be helping our kids with history homework and get jumpscared by this pic.
When it comes to EVs, the US is on the wrong side of history. Tesla may be there, but the US main export is oil and has been for at least 15 years.
Tesla is valuable because they're looking to put taxi drivers out of a job forever.
China on the other hand has hardly any oil. Same with most of Europe. On this issue at least, we should be allies.
Between them the US, Russia and Saudi Arabia will still boil the Earth, but at least we won't be fuelling their war machines while they do.
He'll make the world's first reverse class action lawsuit accusing everyone who hasn't bought a Tesla of boycott
- Boycotts by individuals are legal.
  What he was complaining about before was that competing companies were colluding to limit demand for a supplier's product. That might run into antitrust law. But antitrust law doesn't govern the buying decisions of individuals.
  
  Boycotts by individuals are legal.
  For now...
Oo I hope this starts a wave of catchy mockery towards everything he touches and everything like him, like:
Go fash, stonks crash.
Fuck around and find out is his new M.O.
Not sure if it's just the promotion of the far-right parties.
For me at the latest after his "Heil Hitler" salute I'd be completely ashamed driving that car.
Might be interesting to see the exact daily timeline of the sales, if it collapsed after the 20th january.
The thing is that the far right in Germany is nowhere near as popular as the Republicans in the US. And the intersection of Tesla buyers and far right voters is very small. Musk made a grave mistake in the marketing department here.
Comparable to endorsing Jill Stein in the US as company for small arms.
when i see someone drive tesla, i feel like i should show my disapproval somehow. But i dont know how to do that in such way the message is understood without making the other one defensive since that would just make the problem worse.
- Teslas have a lot of cameras. I'm not sure what kind of power it would need but its likely you can damage the cameras with a laser
  
  This definitely fits the bill of ‘make the problem worse’
  
  people who use teslas definitely deserve some vandalism, but i dont think that would tell them it makes them shitty people. It would more likely just push them even more towards some hateful ideology. They should be made look like rejects they are, not victims. Though maybe if someone was to flip the tesla logo, it looks just like someone on kkk hood, just upside down.
Hopefully, the Tesla nose dive spreads to his other businesses.
Swatzicar!!!!
IIRC this fact also had to do with a German government subsidizing EVs that ended late last year, I could be wrong to. Any German that can help clear this up?
- Iirc, the subsidy was ~7000€. When the subsidy ended, car prices dropped by roughly 5000€. Meaning, there was a gift for the manufacturers and nothing changed. Of course, you can't brag about your 40k car anymore because it's only 35k now. And other smaller effects like the ads are different now.
Having lived in a couple of countries in Europe, including a decade in Britain, I would say the UK is one of the most Fascist countries in Europe (for example having a citizen surveillance system even more extreme than the US and Press censorship in the form of D-Noticies), though elites there are extremelly good at being subtle and posh about it so the will keep up appearences: you won't see goose stepping on the streets but for example in peaceful demonstrations the police will charge the crowd and News will report that - by showing the footage in the inverse order - as people first charging the police who then responded to it and you won't see an overt Secret Police but once in a while out pops a leak of a special group within the normal police infiltrated Ecologist groups with undercover police officers (which came out because some female Ecologists ended up pregnant) or how their surveillance organisation kept Greenparty leaders under surveillance.
Back during the Nazi times the British elites were even pro-Nazi (there's a picture of Queen Elizabeth as a child being taught by her uncle - then King - to do a Nazi salute) and it was only the Nazi invasion of Belgium that changed their minds, so geopolitics rather than a dislike of the Nazi ideology of ethnic superiority (notice how over the years British elites kept supporting white colonialism and their violence, from Appartheid South Africa to Genocide Israel). More in general, the elites over there (which are overwhelmingly dynastic in nature, and I don't mean just the Royal Family) are strong believers in their own inherent superiority over others as justification for their wealth, so the whole ubermenschen and untermenschen thinking applied along class lines rather than just races (but races too: Brits tend to believe themselves superior to just about all foreigners but Americans and for example some of the most celebrated heroes of Britain - such as Churchill - actually ordered the execution of Genocides in the British Empire possessions).
All this to say that to me, having lived over there for a decade, the British's minimal response to Fascism compared to the rest of Europe isn't surprising - they live in a Society than in many ways runs along similar molds, harbours similar ideations about the inherent worth of people and is (including the Press) controled by elites who mostly are the same families that supported Nazism before Hitler invaded Belgium.
- Most of Europe was okayish with the Nazi to be fair. We would evn turn away Jewish refugees before the war. Let's be clear that WW2 didn't happen because of the Genocides but only because of the invasions of other countries. The UK is not special in that regard.
  
  My impression from living there is that the UK never ditched the mindset that some people are born inherently superior to others, and that's both for different parts of British society along the axis of class (and in many cases also the different nations of the UK, with the English often seeing themselves as superior) and towards foreigners (Brexit did not happen in a vacuum).
  I have the theory that is because the UK never really had a Revolution started from below (the closest they had were the Barons rebeling against the King leading to the Magna Carta or the Catholic-vs-Protestant fighting which was mainly different factions of the elites re-approportioning power) or Occupation by a foreign power that crushed the existing elites and loosened their power over the entire system, hence the established elites never really changed and thus the power structures in Britain, who those structures serve and who controls them, has changed a lot less over the last couple of centuries than elsewhere in Europe.
  They're not as much Fascists in a traditional sense but more a continuation of a Monarchic semi-Autocratic system were the power of the King was weakenned centuries ago and divided amongst the rest of the Landowner Class and later the Trading Burgeoisie without really reaching the lower classes in full (the closest to it ever happenning was post-War Britain and that has been reverted in the last 4 decades).
  Fascism in Europe one of the reactions to Republicanism, but the UK never had a Republican phase and so a lot of the ideas on power and the worth of people in Fascism which are really just re-hashed monarchic thinking on who are the proper rulers and justifying it are still present in the British system in their natural (though more sophisticated in means and appearence) form.
  All this to say that, yeah, I agree with you, it's just that I don't think their love for the Nazi ideology back then was quite driven by the same reasons as many other countries in Europe (though remember how even in Germany the Nazis had some support from the Monarchics) and that whilst elsewhere in Europe the elites that held such thinking were dethroned, in Britain they held on to power to the present day.
I would also not under estimate that in comparison to let's say 5 years ago. Now every car maker and their dog has a decent E-car (and sometimes a lot of different ones) so Tesla hasn't a monopoly anymore
If I ever see a fucking Cybertruck here, I'm moving to Antarctica.
Great!!😀
when is international break a Tesla window day?
- And make Tesla more money by selling replacement windows? Nah. If you need to let out your anger on random people's cars, buy some "Fuck Elon" stickers and stick those on the back.
- Destroying peoples property is not the answer. Declining sales figures is.
- It's everyday my pal
- These are working class people you are talking about. Please keep the focus on millionaires and billionaires.
I wish they stopped using that image of Musk. It makes all the different news items look the same.
- I think it's important to keep using this image of Musk. It's the most direct way to remind people that this powerful man working to destroy every government department from within is an unelected Nazi.
  
  Then put it inside of the article but not as the thumbnail.
- I was about to say the opposite. I am delighted that they put the same picture of this Nazi every time there is an article about him or Tesla. Keep up the good work, and never forget that he's a Nazi.
- It should be the only image ever shown of Musk from now on.
- Nazi shit does shit head thing
- /s?
  They are.

98 comments

Go fash, stonks crash.