Tesla's Germany nightmare just got worse. The EV giant sold just 750 vehicles in October - less than half of last year's numbers - as Elon Musk's political controversies and fierce European competition finally catch up with the company in one of Europe's biggest car markets. The collapse comes despite Tesla launching a cheaper Model Y variant and building cars right in Brandenburg.
Tesla is getting crushed in Germany, and the numbers tell a brutal story. The company managed to sell just 750 electric vehicles in October - a staggering drop from the 1,607 it moved in the same month last year, according to fresh data from Germany's federal transport authority.
This isn't just a bad month for Tesla. The year-to-date picture is equally grim, with Tesla's German sales plummeting 50% to 15,595 units while the overall German EV market actually expanded nearly 40% to 434,627 new battery electric vehicles. That's a market share collapse happening in real time.
The irony cuts deep - Tesla operates a massive assembly plant in Brandenburg, just outside Berlin, yet the company has become anything but a hometown favorite. Elon Musk's increasingly inflammatory political rhetoric, particularly his vocal endorsement of Germany's far-right AfD party, has seriously damaged Tesla's brand among German consumers who tend to lean left politically.
The AfD endorsement wasn't just a casual political statement - it represented a fundamental misreading of Tesla's core customer base. German EV buyers, typically environmentally conscious and progressive, found themselves facing an uncomfortable choice between their climate values and supporting a company whose CEO champions anti-immigrant extremism.
But politics isn't Tesla's only German headache. The company faces an increasingly crowded field of European and Chinese competitors offering smaller, more affordable EVs. Many of these rivals price their vehicles below €35,000, making Tesla's premium positioning harder to justify for budget-conscious consumers.
Recognizing the threat, Tesla scrambled to respond. During October, the company began selling a stripped-down version of its Model Y SUV in Germany, priced at €39,990 - roughly €5,000 cheaper than previously available Model Y variants. The move represents a significant strategic shift for a company that has historically resisted racing to the bottom on price.
Yet even with this price cut, Tesla's October sales continued their downward spiral. The new budget Model Y clearly hasn't been enough to stem the bleeding, raising questions about whether Tesla waited too long to address German market realities.
