Tesla sales keep slipping, but EV sales keep climbing – even WITHOUT incentives

Germany’s new car market as-a-whole continued to struggle through the end of the first quarter, but you’d never know it from looking at EV sales. Even as Tesla’s fortunes continue to decline, EV sales shot up more than 35% year over year – now approaching 17% of the market, and that’s WITHOUT government incentives!

Spanish media outlet Motorpasión is reporting that Germany’s Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (or KBA; sort of like the American National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, NHTSA) says electric cars already make up 17% of all new vehicle registrations in the European country. And that EV market share is accelerating, despite the cancelation of government EV subsidies in late 2023.

At the same time, Tesla – whose Model Y electric crossover was, at one point, the best-selling car in the world – is watching its sales tank globally. That’s especially true in Germany, where the American EV brand saw a 70% drop in sales through the first two months of the year, YOY, and some 94% of survey respondents (allegedly) said they wouldn’t buy a Tesla.

All of which begs the question: what gives?

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Pull-ahead EV sales + Elon’s Musk

The first part of this two-part answer involves German EV subsidies. The nation’s government issued a €4,500 subsidy for the purchase of a new EV with a sub-€40,000 list price (€3,000 for €40-65,000 cars). That often-criticized program was always intended to be temporary, however, and after EV sales reached one million units the subsidy was canceled for business customers in September in 2023 and private individuals the end of December.

The result of that cancellation was a significant drop in new EV sales in 2024 vs. ’23 – but that’s easily explained by “pull-ahead” sales driven by the knowledge that the government subsidy would be ending soon. And, sure, you don’t see the sort of spikes you see in the US when people who don’t understand basic economic concepts or what tariffs are suddenly gain political power, but that has as much to do with the way cars are sold in Europe as anything else.

In Europe, car buyers typically visit dealers to look at options and features and work with their salespeople to place an order for a new car. The car is built to their customized specifications, and the customer waits anywhere 3-4 months for delivery. There is no, “What’s it gonna take for you to drive one of these home, today?” in other words.

That’s part one.

The second part is the overwhelming stink of Elon Musk (see what I did there?). The Tesla CEO’s passionate embrace of the alt-right and even far-right political movement combined with not one but two “Roman” salutes at Trump’s inauguration (wink-wink, nudge-nudge) have turned the brand’s electric cars into political statements, whether their owners wanted that or not – and many are trading out of their Teslas much earlier than they’d originally planned in favor of a vehicle that’s less politically charged.

What vehicles are they buying? I’ve put together a list of the best-selling EVs in Germany so far this year, along with links to local discount and 0% deals on the ones that are available stateside. Take a look at number 7 (How the mighty have fallen!), then let us know how you think the German EV standings will look in December in the comments.

Ten best-selling EVs in Germany

• Volkswagen ID.7 (shown, at top) 9,336 units
• Volkswagen ID.4/ID.5 7,778 units (available in US)
• Škoda Enyaq 7,393 units
• Volkswagen ID.3 6,174 units
• Cupra Born with 5,241 units
• Audi Q4 e-tron 3,906 units (available in US)
• Tesla Model Y 3,442 units (available in US)
• BMW i4 2,859 units (available in US)
• Cupra Tavascan 2,822 units
• BMW iX 2,797 units (available in US)

SOURCES: KBA, via Motorpasión.

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