Tesla's German car sales more than halve in October as wider EV sales jump

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/teslas-german-car-sales-more-than-halved-october-2025-11-05/

56•moosedman•2h ago

Comments

moosedman•2h ago

I don’t understand how the Tesla fanboys don’t realize how badly he’s torched his consumer base with his politics…

_aavaa_•2h ago

It’s cause Tesla isn’t a car company, it’s an AI robotics company’s /s

schiffern•1h ago

This but unironically.

justapassenger•2h ago

Not releasing any new model in half a decade (let's forget about cybertruck - tesla already did) didn't help either.

schiffern•1h ago

Nope, bad strategy advice.

Tesla is battery-limited, not demand-limited. Adding models would only add complexity without meaningfully increasing revenue.

It helps to know basic fundamental facts about the company.

BigTTYGothGF•1h ago

> Tesla is ... not demand-limited

Per the article, this no longer seems to be the case.

schiffern•1h ago

You fell for the "we didn't say it so technically we didn't lie" clickbait headline, I see.

This article is the same recycled misinformation that's been repeated for years. What's actually happening is that Tesla does regional delivery waves, which results in large month-to-month fluctuations. Nothing new here.

Yes Virginia, the media will distort information to sell eyeballs. Color me shocked!

buellerbueller•1h ago

YTD-over-YTD, tesla sales are down 30% in EU. That is not explainable by month-to-month variation.

You fell for the "numbers are real" conspiracy.

BigTTYGothGF•1h ago

From the article:

> The number of Teslas sold in the January-October period dropped 50.4% to 15,595 units, compared with the same period last year.

mjamesaustin•1h ago

Please explain how a demand limited company is seeing dramatic reductions in its annual sales? They used to be demand-limited. Not today.

schiffern•1h ago

False premise. The company isn't demand limited, despite the (conspicuously implied and never actually stated) conclusion the headline desperately wanted you to reach.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45827800

I really wish people had any media literacy left. This brand of lying without lying is extremely common in modern media, and also extremely easy to spot once you know what to look for.

afavour•1h ago

Did you even read the article?

> KBA said Tesla sold 750 cars in Germany in October, down by 53.5% from a year earlier. The number of Teslas sold in the January-October period dropped 50.4% to 15,595 units, compared with the same period last year.

To be clear, you are suggesting that Tesla had no delivery "wave" between January and October? And that is the sign of a healthy company?

tcfhgj•1h ago

His claim is it's battery limited. I understand that as too little batteries are able to be produced to match the demand?

Permit•59m ago

Can you (instead of pontificating about media literacy) share evidence that Tesla is currently battery-limited?

mentalfist•1h ago

Delusional take. Look at sales and/or inventory trends over the past year. The demand is clearly crashing, and for many good reasons

ajross•1h ago

> Tesla fanboys don’t realize

I don't know who you're addressing. Lots of people, me included, don't like the conspiracy minded politicization of his fortune but still think the cars are pretty great. Seems like a boring opinion that wouldn't be controversial, but we still find ourselves subtweeted anyway.

(Edit: three downvotes and a Godwin's Law reply drop within seconds, as expected. Seriously folks there are 125k people who work for that company, must everything about it be judged entirely on the last twelve months of one guys mania?)

verdverm•1h ago

The winds have shifted, politics has seeped into everything, consumers are voting with money, most people are rejecting contemporary right-wing policies and politics.

No longer are we going to tolerate the intolerant. If you are willing to look past the moral failings, you are seen as part of the problem and should expect consequences. Social dynamics are at work

> (Edit: three downvotes and a Godwin's Law reply drop within seconds, as expected. Seriously folks there are 125k people who work for that company, must everything about it be judged entirely on the last twelve months of one guys mania?)

It seems the answer is a definitive yes, reflect on why this is.

Also, it's far more than 12 months. He's been manic for far longer, if not his entire life. We just saw the unfiltered version for the last 12 months. Now we know

buellerbueller•1h ago

>most people are rejecting contemporary right-wing policies and politics.

Hmm...

>No longer are we going to tolerate the intolerant. If you are willing to look past the moral failings, you are seen as part of the problem and should expect consequences. Social dynamics are at work

The woke left forcing ideological conformity loses them a lot of support from the center-left, which turns out is not a winning electoral strategy. At which point one must wonder if the wokeness is just performative and virtue signaling, rather than an attempt to gain actual political power.

verdverm•1h ago

> The woke left forcing ideological conformity

It's not about forcing conformity, it's about having basic human decency. Right-wingers belittle and dehumanize so many groups and people it's hard to keep track

see also: Paradox of tolerance

> turns out is not a winning electoral strategy

umm, did you look at the election results from yesterday?

#1 economy (i.e. emotionally driven tariffs)

#2 people don't like seeing children and neighbors disappeared by masked thugs (i.e. due-process and rule-of-law)

BolexNOLA•1h ago

You’re totally right. Rampant government cuts, attacking healthcare subsidies, attacking LGBT Americans, threatening universities, ego-driven tariff policy, and just generally poor economic stewardship, should be the electoral strategy. It sure seems to be working out for republicans.

balls187•1h ago

> must everything about it be judged entirely on the last twelve months of one guys mania?

Yes, unfortunately.

Build a thousand bridges...

saubeidl•1h ago

There is no apolitical, there never was. To say that you're apolitical is just an implicit endorsement of the status quo, coming from a place of privilege.

FireBeyond•27m ago

I've yet to meet a person who both says they are "apolitical" and are more liberal in their perspectives.

It's like centerists. It's funny how when you push at them they reveal more and more right-leaning opinions.

Libertarians should, ostensibly, probably have a fairly split voting history, but yet it's always much more right-leaning too.

01100011•1h ago

Is it really Godwin's Law if the guy literally performed a public Nazi salute?

programable•52m ago

Not only that, Musk eagerly promoted Tucker Carlson's interview with a Nazi who said the murder of Jews in concentration camps was "humane", and that Winston Churchill was the "chief villain" of WW2.

hiddencost•1h ago

Idk man he's staked his reputation on eliminating my trans family from America. Get fucked.

breve•1h ago

> must everything about it be judged entirely on the last twelve months of one guys mania

The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.

ajross•46m ago

Yeah, but "the standard" in this case is basically "everyone's slightly racist drunk uncle". You or I might disagree with that politics but it's absolutely not "uncommon", at all. In fact there's nothing particularly notable about the guy's opinions at all absent the financial force behind them.

So... are we cancelling the guy for his opinions or engaging in praxis trying to eliminate his ideology's funding? Very different moral calculus, IMHO, and neither seems very well justified (or implemented[1]) by the attitude I'm seeing in these debates.

[1] I mean, downvoting your fellow lefty traveller in a tiff over the car he drives might feel good but it's clearly not having the desired effect of changing Musk's politics. I am not your enemy, basically. Why are you fighting with the guy who's already voting for your candidates?

postflopclarity•29m ago

if your slightly racist drunk uncle was the richest man in the world and one of the most politically influential oligarchs in US history, sure.

TheAlchemist•1h ago

It's not only politics, although it certainly didn't help.

Tesla did not release new cars, except for Cybertruck, for how long ? 5 years ? 10 years ?

Their lineup was great initially, and there was 0 competition. Now there is a lot of competition and their lineup did not change at all.

Their car business is dying. That's why they try to be an AI & Robotics company.

Edit: Here is a good link to follow the sales data - for many countries, it's reported daily. https://eu-evs.com/brandCharts/TESLA/ALL_DAILY/QoQ-Chart

yangikan•1h ago

Does anyone know if Musk's robotics/AI business is under Tesla? What prevents him from launching the robots under a new company? Is there any protection for Tesla investors against these kind of things?

TheAlchemist•1h ago

Well, if you follow his adventures a bit, it's quite obvious that there is absolutely nothing preventing him from that.

2 years ago, while claiming that Tesla is the leader in AI, he launched a private ... AI company (xAI), for which he took Tesla GPU chips, and now he tries to make Tesla ... invest in said company, at a valuation (>B100$) that could only be compared to something like Dogecoin.

All of this, with your and my retirement money, since the stock is in the S&P.

schiffern•1h ago

  >Tesla did not release new cars, except for Cybertruck, for how long ? 5 years ? 10 years ?

As stated earlier, this is extremely bad strategy advice.

Tesla is battery-limited, not demand-limited (delivery wave concern trolling from OP's headline aside). Adding models would only add complexity without meaningfully increasing revenue.

It helps to know basic fundamental facts about the company before commenting.

  >Now there is a lot of competition and their lineup did not change at all.

More misinformation. Tesla continuously updates their cars unlike most manufacturers which are stuck in "waterfall" model year refreshes.

See Sandy Munro's excellent breakdowns on the phenomenal pace of innovation at Tesla compared to competitors.

TheAlchemist•1h ago

Not demand limited ? Yeah sure, CEO once said that they have infinite demand (at the right price /s).

If they are not demand limited, can you explain why they slashed prices, are offering countless promotions which evaporated their margins, and are running the factories at 50% capacity ?

bydo•1h ago

Why weren't they "battery limited" when they were making more cars?

preezer•1h ago

You are absolutely right. I live in Germany. Me and many of my friends considered Tesla as a real alternative, but after his lunacy came to light, none of us will even think of driving one.

Night_Thastus•1h ago

Aside from politics, their cars have a reputation for poor quality control. Peeling steering wheels, leaking seals, funky air conditioner smells, etc. Then when there are problems you may be waiting months while it sits in a service center. Or the stupid thing may shut off (due to errors or updates) right when you need it.

I would not want to buy one of them for any of those reasons, regardless.

mattmaroon•1h ago

And they don’t have CarPlay. I was considering one but then I started dating a girl who drives a Model Y. So many little things wrong. Like the vent fan rattles, leather peels, etc. And when you get even a minor ding in the exterior, good luck.

dzhiurgis•13m ago

And their nearest competition Hyundai/Kia have disintegrating reduction gear and exploding inverters.

All cars have issues, but stats favour Tesla all while they are cheapest to repair.

themafia•1h ago

I don't understand why people think only left wing voters would buy a Tesla.

If you think that's true then people aren't buying a quality vehicle they're buying an ideological badge.

If you don't think that's true then people aren't buying them because they're not quality vehicles.

hiddencost•1h ago

You're confused.

themafia•1h ago

I am a human, so that's entirely possible, but perhaps you'd like to expand on this point, otherwise, I risk remaining confused.

Let me be clear about my point though, Tesla's are _not_ quality vehicles, and given a choice, consumers with money will not select them. Politics do not enter into this equation outside of Hacker News.

AndrewDucker•1h ago

1) Left wing people have been more likely to buy an EV because they're seen as better for the environment.

2) Even if he only drives away the left wing half of the population that still halves his customer base.

01100011•1h ago

I'm still seeing quite a few new Teslas in San Diego(arguably a more conservative city by CA standards).

Someone is still giving him money for some reason.

mattmaroon•1h ago

They understand that he has, they think it’ll blow over.

moosedman•1h ago

It won't

azakai•1h ago

Some data on how badly he torched his consumer base: a Yale study says Tesla lost 1.26 million US sales due to Musk's politics.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/cars/news/2025/10/28/tesla-lo...

standardUser•1h ago

It might help if Tesla would release some new models that aren't obnoxious gimmicks with missing paint jobs.

jstummbillig•1h ago

Why would you assume that's not the case? Knowing something has gone wrong is different to putting effort into ensuring the general public is aware that you know something has gone wrong.

electric_mayhem•1h ago

I was all in on Tesla in 2019. Solar, powerwalls, model 3.

Traded the car in a couple months ago. It was ok, as a car, but I hated what it had become synonymous with so it was worth the financial hit to give up a paid off car. Turns out the new Mach-e which replaced it is better in every way.

Might be some fanboys left, but a bunch of folks who might have fallen into that category in the past have been driven away by Musk’s unconscionable activities.

dzhiurgis•15m ago

We are not even in US, but 2 of my Tesla friends turned to support Trump and upgraded to new Model Y. I'd do the same, but I'm broke. I don't support Trump at all, but at least I don't suffer from TDS.

I feel there has been shift or perhaps we were cringe tech bros from the start.

LightBug1•1h ago

Excellent news. Thanks.

KaiserPro•1h ago

Part of this is down to musk being an obnoxious prick, but a larger part is down to teslas not actually being innovative, cheap or high quality enough any more.

They look dated, or weird, have patchy customer service, and are not even that long range anymore.

pimeys•1h ago

They are all over Berlin as rentals, which you can rent from your phone, and pay per kilometer. People can test drive them easily, and they are not super nice cars. We much prefer the Audis, Toyotas, and Volkswagens that are also in the pool.

rstupek•1h ago

From US sales, Audi can't give away their electric cars. Is it any different in Berlin or are you referring to gas/diesel Audis?

bryanlarsen•1h ago

The VW group sells 13 different vehicles built on the MEB platform. The id.4 alone sells comparably to the Tesla Y, but if you consider all 13 the same car they are far and away the best selling car in Europe.

Considering all 13 the same might be a stretch, but if you just take the 6 that are the same size as the id.4 you still end up with the same result.

dzhiurgis•4m ago

In 10-20-30 years, which one do you think you'll be able to maintain - obscure VW ID.4.324.7-cz or Tesla Model Y?

_aavaa_•3m ago

Is this a trick question? I know the Tesla software locks as much as possible to prevent third party repairs.

pimeys•53m ago

Gas/diesel mostly.

dzhiurgis•19m ago

They are still insanely good value for money. Buying car for its looks is not smart.

Yet (salute + support for ADF party) * touchy german history = auto non-grata.

submeta•1h ago

Elon promised too much (self driving cars coming next month, this time for real), and the market has realized that after the 25th promise, he‘s not going to deliver.

Also, Elon should have stick to cars and rockets. His venturing into politics, and into media (with buying X) didn’t help him either. He got demystified, and demolished his image of a super focused half-einstein, half-edison. Now more of an half-Trump. And that didn’t help his car sales either.

hiddencost•1h ago

It wasn't a promise, it was a lie.

dzhiurgis•9m ago

It self drives in like 6 or 7 countries now.

afavour•1h ago

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. Tesla has been way, way overvalued for a very long time. If that starts to change I suspect it'll change very quickly and Musk's status might see a dramatic change.

Iulioh•1h ago

If Tesla's valuation had to follow earnings it would not even be in the SNP500

BolexNOLA•9m ago

You could say that about a lot of companies right now to be honest. It’s kind of wild how detached from reality some stocks are. But there’s no denying that Tesla is one of the most egregious examples.

fundatus•1h ago

Interesting, not only is Tesla 50% down YTD, but it seems like BYD almost caught up with them:

15,595 (Tesla) vs. 15,171 (BYD)

chollida1•1h ago

> Interesting, not only is Tesla 50% down YTD,

TSLA is not down 50% YTD. Its up this year so far.

Can you show the math that shows it down 50% YTD?

fundatus•1h ago

I am talking about the numbers in the article (Tesla sales in Germany), not the stock:

> The number of Teslas sold in the January-October period dropped 50.4% to 15,595 units, compared with the same period last year.

mk89•1h ago

It's literally written in the article:

> The number of Teslas sold in the January-October period dropped 50.4% to 15,595 units, compared with the same period last year.

YoY is -50%.

breve•1h ago

Swasticars don't sell well.

The main problem with Musk's proposed pay deal is that he still gets paid billions even if he continues to fail:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/musks-record-tes...

Tesla's sales target is now to have sold 20 million cars in total by 2035. That's fewer cars in total in what will then be the 32 year history of the company than Toyota sold in the last two years:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/business/elon-musk-tesla-...

Tesla's target used to be 20 million per year:

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-...

But Tesla's board doesn't care. They got theirs:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/business/tesla-stock-sale...

https://www.afr.com/technology/life-changing-wealth-stopped-...

yalogin•1h ago

We know why the decline is happening. However, I am more curious to see how long people's memory will last. Also a little surprised that there isn't a whole lot of decline in the US.

mk89•1h ago

This is not just German related, apparently. It seems Tesla sales in EU are falling since 2023 [0].

And it seems that until now, Tesla sales in Eu are 30% less than last year [1]

There is more competition, finally.

[0]: https://www.benzinga.com/tech/25/01/43092840/tesla-struggles...

[1]: https://electrek.co/2025/11/03/tesla-tsla-keeps-getting-batt...

ChrisArchitect•1h ago

[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45826384

LightBug1•13m ago

When I think of Tesla, I think Elon Musk sweeping up some garbage on the street while simultaneously taking a dump on it ...

I'll never buy a Tesla. Personally, Musk has delivered generational toxicity to their brand. And he now seeks to be rewarded for that.

The Board is dysfunctional.

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