Tag Archives: European Automobile Manufacturers Association

Tesla Tanking in the EU

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It is down in Q1 by a big number. A very big number.

By Gary S. Vasilash

Although there are plenty of headlines about Tesla sales dropping 37.2% in Europe during the first quarter of 2025 compared to Q1 2024, it is actually a bit worse than that.

The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), which reports the numbers, has two charts for new car registrations by manufacturer.

One is for the European Union.

One is for the European Union, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland), and the United Kingdom.

The 37.2% drop is for the EU + EFTA + UK market.

While that combined market is bigger than the EU alone, the EU market alone had EV sales of 412,997 EVs in Q1 and the EFTA and the UK added only 160,503.

Obviously that EFTA + UK number can change the overall percentage.

But the trend in the EU itself is the one that is the more important.

The EU-only chart shows that Q1 2025 Tesla sales are down 45% compared with Q1 2024.

While there may be excuses about changeovers and Q1 not being great for sales, and it is true that there are negative numbers for several OEMs in the EU—for example, Stellantis -14%, Toyota -4.8%, Hyundai Group -7.2%, Mercedes -6.2%–but no OEM is off as much as Tesla.

Not All Red Ink

What’s more (truly more) is that the ACEA finds that Volkswagen Group for Q1-Q1 is +4.8%, Renault Group +9.5%, and BMW Group +0.4%.

Of all the countries in Europe—including the EFTA and the UK—the single biggest market in Germany. Where Tesla has a plant. And where Elon Musk became involved in politics.

Germany’s Robust EV Sales

During the first quarter of 2025 sales of battery electric vehicles in Germany were up 38.9% compared with Q1 2024.

There were 112,968 EVs sold in Germany in Q1. It is the dominant factor in all of the numbers.

While it is probably impossible to know precisely why Tesla sales were down 45% in the EU in a period when EV sales were up 38.9%, it isn’t hard to imagine why.

Uh-Oh (Euro)

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Sticking with the Euro theme, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) released its figures for March 2024—and there’s a decline.

The EU car market was down 5.2%.

A factor?

The Easter Bunny.

That’s right. According to the ACEA, “The timing of the Easter holidays negatively impacted last month’s sales across most EU markets.”

Oddly enough, last year Easter was in April and EU car sales were up 17.2%.

As is the case in the U.S. EV sales were down (now 13% of the market there, or nearly double of what they are here (OK: less than double as EV sales in Q1 in the U.S. are 7.3%, per Kelley Blue Book)) and hybrid sales up, now at 29% of the total market.

One interesting thing about the 13% EV market share.

It is 0.6% greater than. . .diesels.

That’s right. Diesel passenger vehicle registrations in the EU are 12.4% of the market.

In March diesel registrations fell an overall 18.5%, with major drops in France (-32.1%), Spain (-38%) and Italy (-27.6%).

In Germany, however, sales were down only 0.5%. (No, that’s not because it is the home of Rudolf Diesel. He was born in Paris.)

China and the EU

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By Gary S. Vasilash

Here’s something that at the very least ought to raise some eyebrows in Detroit and Washington DC.

This, from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association’s report on economic activity released last week:

“In the first three quarters of 2023, China maintained its position as the primary source of new EU car imports in value terms, growing by an impressive 58.1% and claiming a significant 17.2% market share in value terms.”

While one might imagine that it would be Japan, but that countries auto manufacturers are in third place, at 14.4% of the market, behind South Korea, at 14.6%.

The U.S.? In fifth place, at 10.6%, behind the United Kingdom, which has 14.1% of the EU market.

It’s not so much that the U.S. is so far behind the others (realize that the delta behind the U.K. is 25%), but that China is gaining so much ground in the EU so quickly.

How does this portend for the future of U.S. OEMs, especially if the Chinese start bringing in lower-cost cars that many Americans can afford despite the current 27.5% tariff that the Chinese would have to absorb?

EU Auto & Enviro Groups Want More Power

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While OEMs are seemingly hell-bent on creating an electric transportation future, there is one Everest-sized speedbump between now and then: the lack of a robust charging infrastructure for those vehicles.

Although companies like Shell and bp talk about peak oil and changing their business models to less carbon-intensive approaches, how many of their stations provide electric chargers? Probably far fewer than offer gasoline, beef jerky and lottery tickets.

The European Automobile Manufacturers Association, the European Consumer Organisation and Transport & Environment have jointly written a letter to the commissioners responsible for the European Union’s Green Deal detailing the necessity for specific regulations rather than a nice-to-achieve directive, regulations that will “set binding national targets for all vehicle segments” vis-à-vis charging.

The authors write: “the following minimal targets should be set in stone: one million charging points in 2024 and three million in 2029 for passenger cars and vans, as well as around 1,000 hydrogen stations by 2029.”

And the boldface font is in their letter.

Apparently there are some 225,000 charging points in the EU right now. If they’re going to have one million charge points by January 1, 2024, then this means they need to install 258,000 additional chargers per year. Or 33,000 more per year than currently exist.–gsv