February numbers show the U.S. electric car maker is struggling to attract buyers in the region, as anger at Elon Musk’s politics intensifies.
Tesla’s sales in Germany plunged in February, part of a wider slump across Europe that has undercut the company’s share price and highlighted anger at the political activities of Elon Musk, the company’s chief executive.
Sales of Tesla cars in Germany, Europe’s largest market for electric vehicles, dove 76 percent in February compared with a year earlier, the German Association of the Automotive Industry said Wednesday. The U.S. carmaker’s sales in the country have fallen two months in a row.
Demand for Teslas has also dropped in other European countries since Mr. Musk became a de facto member of President Trump’s cabinet and ramped up promotion of far-right parties in Europe and elsewhere on X, the social media platform he owns.
Tesla’s share price has fallen more than 40 percent from its peak in December and erased all the gains made after Mr. Trump won the presidency in November, when investors bet that Mr. Musk could use his influence in the White House to benefit his businesses.
In Germany, Mr. Musk’s aggressive promotion of a far-right party ahead of last month’s parliamentary elections and his call for citizens to move beyond “a focus on past guilt” may have alienated customers.
Mr. Musk and Tesla are increasingly being targeted by activists and vandals. Activists in London have started a campaign encouraging people to ditch their Teslas and cancel their accounts on X. In Strasbourg, France, an activist group is handing out stickers warning the Tesla chief to “Stay Away from the E.U.” Over the weekend, Tesla vehicles in a parking lot in southern France were set ablaze, which prosecutors said were “not at all accidental.”