Tesla Sales Drop In Europe In February, Some Countries Down Over 40%: Is Musk's Political Push Hurting EV Company?

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Tesla Inc TSLA sales continue to drop in Europe in 2025 with the latest figures indicating the brand could be hurting from CEO Elon Musk's political push and calls for boycotts of the brand.

What Happened: Musk has gotten increasingly involved with politics in the United States with a role helping President Donald Trump with the Department of Government Efficiency.

Musk has also gotten involved in other international political contests like Germany. The billionaire has also shown allegiance to Trump when it comes to the Russia and Ukraine war, taking sides against Ukraine.

All of these items combined, along with choice comments on the past history of the Nazi party, could have European consumers upset and ready to stop buying Tesla vehicles.

Data for the month of February shows a sharp decline on a year-over-year basis for the first four major countries to report in Europe, as reported by Electrek.

  • France: 2,395 units, -35.4% year-over-year
  • Norway: 917 units, -48.4% year-over-year
  • Sweden: 613 units, -42.4% year-over-year
  • Denmark: 509 units, -53.1% year-over-year

In total, the four countries had sales of 4,434 Tesla units for the month of February, which was down 38.2% year-over-year.

These numbers continue a trend in 2025 of declines. Here were the January 2025 year-over-year changes for the four countries:

  • France: -44.4%
  • Norway: -45.3%
  • Sweden: -43.9%
  • Denmark: -48.1%
  • Four Countries Total: -46.2%

The February year-over-year changes got better for France and Sweden and the overall count in the four countries, while year-over-year declines worsened in Norway and Denmark.

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Why It's Important: While some Tesla fans and investors will point to the changeover of the Tesla Model Y to an updated version being the reason for the declines, Electrek highlights that the update shouldn't be responsible for this big of a drop.

Several European markets are still to report February figures, including Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal. These could be among the most telling countries.

Germany had a 59.5% year-over-year decline in February and as mentioned above has been one of the countries Musk has been most involved with politically. Spain was the biggest decliner in January with a 75.4% year-over-year decline of the tracked European markets.  

Electrek said the sales declines come in some markets that are seeing overall increases in car sales. In Norway, car sales were up 21% year-over-year in February. The country is dominated by electric vehicles, which makes Tesla's 48% drop pretty alarming in the grand scheme of things.

Tesla sales have also declined in U.S. markets in 2025, including California.

A Brand Finance survey found that Musk's comments may have hurt Tesla's brand value.

Tesla fell to 36th place in the 2025 rankings, down from 18th place in 2024. The electric vehicle company had a brand value of $43 billion in the 2025 rankings, down 26% from $58.27 billion in 2024.

Tesla's scores in categories such as “reputation,” “recommendation” and “consideration” all fell from the prior year.

TSLA Price Action: Tesla stock is down 1.3% to $281.08 versus a 52-week trading range of $138.80 to $488.54. Tesla stock is down 25.8% year-to-date in 2025.

While Tesla stock previously soared after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, the stock is back to nearly where it was after the victory.

Tesla stock closed at $251.44 on Nov. 5 and opened for trading at $284.67 on Nov. 6 after Trump's victory was announced.

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