Elon Musk’s political journey in the Trump Administration will hinder Tesla’s performance this year. So much so that the American car company is on track to close its second consecutive year with sales cuts.
Not only has BYD surpassed it as the world leader in the sale of electric vehicles, but also where this poor performance has been most noticeable is in Europe.
The firm based in Texas (USA) sold a total of 1,247,902 electric vehicles, which is equivalent to a decrease of 3.5% in the year-on-year comparison.
The situation in Europe is more serious. If the electric vehicle market grew by 25.4% until September, with a total of 1,796,688 units sold, Tesla cut its deliveries by 28.5%, with 173,694 units.
All in all, the company accounts for 9.6% of the European electric car market. A not inconsiderable figure.
Now, the weight of sales that the Old Continent contributes to the total deliveries made by Elon Musk’s company decreased from one year to the next.
So, The share contributed by the European market stands at 13.9%which represents a drop of 5.3 percentage points compared to the first nine months of 2024.
VW, European market leader
The leadership of the automobile market in Europe is held by the Volkswagen Group. The German automobile giant delivered 522,600 electric models in Europe between January and September, which is 78.2% more compared to the same period of the previous year.
It is not surprising, since the German automobile consortium has up to five different brands that have a wide range of electric models. A situation that Tesla does not have, as it only markets a range of four models.
Thus, the Volkswagen Group accounts for 29% of the sales of electric models made in the Old Continent. In other words, three times more than Tesla.
It should be remembered that the Volkswagen Group is also the undisputed leader of the European market.. In the first three quarters, it sold 2,654,576 vehicles, 4.4% more than in the same period of the previous year. This allows it to capture a market share of 26.7%, up 0.7 percentage points in the year-on-year comparison.
Despite this, the German automobile consortium is not going through its best financial moment.
The Volkswagen Group closed the first three quarters of the year with a drop in its attributable net profit of 53%, reaching 3,523 million euros. Furthermore, its income only grew by 0.5%, up to 238,669 million euros.
In fact, the German group will close this year with “zero or perhaps slightly positive” cash flow.