Dog Bites Man As Tesla Sales Crater In Europe And Trump Embarrasses Himself At NATO Summit

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump were joined at the hip earlier this year, gleefully giving thousands of federal workers the axe, including those tasked with investigating purported misdeeds by Tesla, among other Musk ventures. Trump and Musk have reportedly gone to Splitsville in recent weeks, but their storylines remain the same: Tesla sales are still going down and Trump is still a figure of international ridicule.

Tesla Sales Crash In Europe, Again

Musk’s excellent White House adventure may or may not be completely over. Either way, the damage he did to the Tesla brand in just a few short months as a “special” employee of the US government is is already done.

For that matter, the reputational risks to Tesla began surfacing long before this year, including Musk’s vociferous misdirection on COVID prevention and vaccination in 2020, to be followed quickly by his ham-handed acquisition of the social media site formerly known as Twitter in 2022, and then of course the record-breaking sum he staked to buy himself a seat in the Oval Office during the run-up to Election Day 2024.

Leaving all that aside for now, let’s look at the latest news from Europe. CNBC is among the news organizations reporting on the body count earlier today, and they did not mince words.

“Tesla new car sales in Europe fell 27.9% year on year in May,” reads the headline, and then it all goes downhill from there.

Between the EU, Britain, and the European Free Trade Association, CNBC notes that Tesla sold only 13,863 units this May, according to data collected by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.

“The U.S. EV maker has sustained brand and reputational damage in part due to CEO Elon Musk’s incendiary rhetoric and political activity,” CNBC summarized, taking note of the strong performance of Chinese automakers and their more affordable EVs in the same market (see lots more Tesla background here).

How Low Can Tesla EV Sales Go?

Ouch! To be clear, Tesla still hangs onto its position as a leader in global EV sales. However, global EV sales are on the upswing, which makes going in the opposite direction a sign that serious mistakes have been made. It’s not like May was an anomoly, either. As noted by CNBC reporter Sam Meredith, May marks the 5th consecutive month that Tesla sales in Europe have circled the drain.

“Tesla’s European market share also dropped to 1.2% from 1.8% in May 2024,” Meredith reported, citing EAMA figures for the overall auto market.

“Musk spent nearly $300 million to help elect U.S. President Donald Trump to a second term and subsequently led a tumultuous initiative to slash federal agencies. Protests erupted at Tesla dealerships across Europe in response,” Meredith further observed.

Somebody Missed The Electric Fleet Boat

Tesla sales aside, EVs have turned in a strong performance in Europe so far this year, especially when hybrids are included in the count alongside 100% battery EVs.

Of course, Tesla does not make hybrids, so there’s no news for the company to exploit in the hybrid market. The German news organization DW also attributes the strength of the European EV market partly to the demand for zero emission mobility devices from fleet operators, which is another area largely untapped by Tesla.

Tesla sales did enjoy a boost of fleet sales adrenaline back in 2021, when the US firm Hertz announced its intention to add 100,000 Tesla sedans and SUVs to its roster of rental cars. That effort ended ignominiously last year (for the record, Hertz took much of the blame).

Other than that, Tesla has shown little interest in promoting itself as a maker of commercial fleet vehicles. Other EV makers have already rolled out a long list of fleet vehicles including pickup trucks (actual pickup trucks), commercial vans, box trucks, school buses, and everything on up to Class 8 heavy duty long haul electric trucks, while Tesla is still struggling to bring its much-hyped and long delayed Tesla Semi truck into full volume production.

Trump Dumps On Tesla Sales, Again

Last week, Musk reminded everyone that he does expect to sell the Tesla Semi in Europe, regardless of the company’s recent track record there. In an epic case of perfect timing, who should appear in Europe this week to remind every fleet owner in Europe that the Tesla brand is attached at the hip to the Trump brand?

That’s right, Trump himself arrived at The Hague in the Netherlands yesterday to remind every fleet operator in Europe of his malevolent incompetence. The occasion was the latest NATO summit, which is taking place as nerves all around Europe are frayed by the possibility that Russian might turn its attention to the rest of the continent after having savaged Ukraine for the past 3-1/2 years.

Barely one day into the summit, Trump already sucked all the air out of NATO with his usual stream-of-consciousness bloviating at a media appearance, including the obligatory Festivus-style airing of grievances against the media.

Robotaxi To The Rescue…Or Not

Defense News is among the news organizations to gently remind everyone that Trump’s support for the NATO alliance shifts with the wind. “New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee who traveled to The Hague and met with several foreign leaders at the summit, said other countries raised ‘understandable questions,’ about the U.S.’s commitment to the alliance, ‘certainly given President Trump’s past statements,'” Defense News reported earlier today.

Questions about the success, or lack thereof, of Trump-ordered bombing raids on Iran’s nuclear facilities also dominated the military news of the week, further roiling public sentiment against Trump in Europe. If this keeps up, the prospects for a bounceback in European Tesla sales for June are dimming by the minute.

To be fair, it’s not all Trump’s fault. Tesla was also a hot media topic this week, when the much-hyped, long delayed public launch of Musk’s new Robotaxi venture finally took place in Austin, Texas, earlier this week. Despite the buildup, the event was about as exciting as week-old rice pudding, except for the parts where some serious, serial law-breaking occurred.

The failure to follow basic traffic rules on the first day of launch does not exactly inspire confidence. To the surprise of no-one, Tesla stock was down 4.3% as of about 2:00 pm today. Not to worry, though. Musk is sure to come up with another announcement to reassure his die-hard fans that there is nowhere to go but up.

Photo: Tesla sales in Europe went down for the 5th straight month in May, marking a sharp contrast with the upwards trajectory of other automakers in the same market (via CleanTechnica archive).