Elon Musk couldn’t have been any clearer last week. He left zero room for interpretation: The only reason that Europe is Tesla’s most challenging market, according to the CEO, is because overall demand is just so poor.
How he arrived at that conclusion is anyone’s guess, however, given that EVs are selling in record numbers in Europe. They just don’t sport a Tesla badge.
Data published on Tuesday showed total demand across the continent—including affluent non-EU member states like Norway, Switzerland and the U.K.—hit all-time highs both for the month of April and year-to-date.
Both represented best-ever marks in absolute volume as well as a 28% rise for their respective period. Percentage gains were broadly distributed through most markets with some like Italy even seeing EV demand double in April.
Across all 31 markets, demand for Musk’s vehicles plunged by 49% in April over the previous year’s period. Only January’s decline was worse by a hair. Year-to-date the drop amounts to 39% for the brand.
Tesla bulls have argued for months Musk’s politics is not to blame for the drop, but rather it’s a result of the Model Y refresh. Customers knew in January that a newer version was coming just two months later and may have postponed their purchase.
“The implications are enormous,” said Felipe Munoz, global analyst at JATO in a statement. “This is a watershed moment for Europe’s car market, particularly when you consider that Tesla has led the BEV market for years.”
Since it takes time to tabulate all the data from 31 different countries, ACEA data comes with a material lag. This month it published data on April just days before the first figures for May start to trickle out. But there is no third-party source for freely public data that more comprehensively breaks down European new car registrations by brand, or EV demand country by country.
Despite the very strong numbers, the lobby group that represents European carmakers’ interests in Brussels said the continent’s EV numbers weren’t nearly enough.
“The battery-electric car market share for April 2025 [year-to-date] stood at 15.3%, still far from where it was expected to be,” the ACEA said in a statement.
Europe’s auto industry has invested hundreds of billions of dollars in EVs by its own count, but has complained to the EU that demand is not picking up fast enough to ensure the business is as profitable at scale as selling cars with combustion engines.
