NEW YORK — Europeans angry at Elon Musk still aren’t buying his cars months after the billionaire predicted a “major rebound” in Tesla sales, data released Thursday shows.
Tesla sales plunged 40% in July in the 27 European Union countries compared with the year earlier even as sales overall of electric vehicle soared, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. Meanwhile sales of Chinese rival BYD continued to climb fast, grabbing 1.1% market share of all car sales in the month versus Tesla’s 0.7%.
Tesla stock fell 1.5% in afternoon trading Thursday.
Musk angered many Europeans by wading into politics there, embracing far-right candidates, calling a British prime minister an “evil tyrant” who belongs in prison and telling Germans “things will get very, very much worse” in their country if they didn’t vote for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party. Protests broke out in several cities, including a hanging of the billionaire in effigy in Milan and posters in London likening him to a Nazi.
The company has several other problems that have hurt sales.
The company is still awaiting European regulatory approval to allow Tesla owners there to use its most advanced driver-assistance features available in the U.S., a big appeal to buyers. Musk had predicted approval of its so-called Full-Self Driving software was going to happen by March of this year.
Another hit came from Tesla’s decision to close down factories temporarily earlier this year to retool for a new version of its best selling Model Y sport utility vehicle
The company is hoping the introduction of cheaper Teslas in the last three months of this year will boost sales.
Overall, the company sold 6,600 cars in July in the EU versus 11,465 a year ago. The plunge came despite a 39% surge in battery electric vehicle sales overall.
For the first seven months of the year, Tesla sales have fallen 44%. For that entire period, as opposed to just July, Tesla accounted for 1.2% of European sales of all types —- battery, hybrid and gas powered —- versus 0.9% for BYD.