Tesla’s European Sales Plunge 18%

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Oct 29, 9:20AM EDT

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In September, Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) sales in the European Union plunged more than 18%.
The EV maker’s market share globally continues to shrink.

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Tesla’s European Sales Plunge 18% — © 2025 Tesla Model Y RWD in Midnight Silver Metallic, front right (BY-SA 4.0) by Ethan Llamas

Tesla Inc.’s (NASDAQ: TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) sales problems around the world continue. It is not clear why, although recent research shows that Elon Musk’s actions and reputation have cut unit sales by a million, compared to what they could have been. That research is based more on theory than an actual figure.

In September, Tesla sales in the European Union fell 18.6% to 25,656. Sales of its archrival BYD jumped 272% to 13,221. While it still trails Tesla in total unit sales, the contrast in their sales directions is huge. The figures are based on registrations and not actual sales.

The numbers also show that Tesla is going the wrong way against the EU’s largest car companies, whether they are EV-based or not. Volkswagen led the market in September, up 11% to 241,368. Sales of Stellantis rose 10.5% to 133,305. And Renault Group sales totaled 100,817, up 14.4%.

Declining Tesla sales there point to its much broader issue. It cannot pull out of a flat spin. Its market share in the United States is less than 45%, but it peaked near 80% almost a decade ago.

In China, Tesla’s market share has been eaten into by local companies, including BYD.

Tesla promotes itself as an artificial intelligence and robotics company. That is Musk’s pitch, and it has worked. Its market cap is over $1 trillion, while GM’s and Ford’s are $60 billion on a good day

Musk says Tesla is not a car company. At some point, however, he has to prove absolutely that is true. Rapidly eroding sales make that case harder.

Tesla Stock Price Prediction and Forecast 2025–2030

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.