Tesla registrations fell 49 % over a year in January and February in the European Union (EU), falling to 19,046 vehicles and 1.1 % market share, according to figures published this Tuesday by the Association of European Automobiles (ACEA).
On the month of February alone, sales fell 47.1 % for Tesla, but with a market share in slight improvement at 1.4 %, more or less the level of Jeep, and less than the Chinese Saic, with its hybrids and electrics sold under MG brand.
The billionaire’s positions alongside Donald Trump may have played a role, even if it is difficult to quantify. “Many people are not aligned with his positions,” Matthieu Noël, analyst at Roland Berger, told AFP. But it is still difficult to say at this stage if “it has a real impact on the brand or if it is temporary”.
An aging range in the face of Chinese competition
But above all, the phenomenon is known to all manufacturers whose range of vehicles is aging, buyers await new models or go to competition to afford the latest innovations. This is the case with notably Asian manufacturers, who in addition to being often cheaper, arrive on the market with the latest technological advances. Tesla, who participated in creating the electric car market, “is no longer positioned with the best products,” adds Matthieu Noël. And even the latest young people brought to Model 3 and Model Y, Tesla’s bestsellers, did not necessarily convince.
Unlike Chinese manufacturers are booming. Byd, the company based in Shenzhen, has just announced a turnover of $ 107.2 billion for the entire year 2024, by ahead of Tesla that of $ 97.7 billion. Byd has just unveiled a new battery technology allowing an ultra-fast recharging called “Super E-Platform”, allowing cars to recover up to 470 km of autonomy after being connected for only five minutes.
The gloomy electric market
Another phenomenon, perhaps deeper. Despite the speeches and encouragement of policies in Europe for the electric vehicle, this market experiences a serious slowdown, even if registrations continue to increase by 28.4 % over the same period in the EU with 255,489 vehicles and 15.2 % of the market. This increase is a bit of the tree that hides the forest. Until now, buyers of electric vehicles, often helped, were also convinced of their relevance. But now, manufacturers must receive a much more mixed clientele with recurring criticism: the price, the lack of autonomy, the lack of charging stations or even a low resale value.
In this context, motorists are also turning to hybrid models, thermal cars but with the assistance of an electric motor for small journeys. These models represented 35.2 % of sales over the first two months of the year (+ 18.7 % over a year). In addition, petrol and even diesel cars are resisting, with another third of the market.
In any event, this progression of the electric is not enough for the automotive lobby: it “remains lower than the level necessary for the transition to zero emission mobility progresses”, underlines in a Signid statement in Vries, director general of the ACEA. “While the European Commission’s proposal on the reduction of penalties for cars and vans for the period 2025-2027 is about to be published, it will be just as important to tackle the bottlenecks of fundamental strangulation which slow down this transition,” she said.
The ACEA cites in particular the acceleration of investments in the recharging infrastructure, the introduction of tax incentives and targeted purchase for light and heavy vehicles, and the reduction of electricity costs for owners of electric cars. Incitations that may not be priority in this period of low growth in Europe, significant budget deficit in certain economies and where the emphasis is now put on the development of a “war economy” that will be expensive.