Elon Musk’s Tesla continues to experience an alarming collapse in key European markets, with high double-digit drops in car registrations reported across France, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Switzerland in April.
While the Model Y remains the world’s best-selling vehicle overall, its updated “Juniper” variant appears to be falling flat in a region where Tesla once thrived. The exception, Norway, showed only a modest gain of 12%, offering little relief for the embattled automaker.
Europe, the second-largest EV market after China, has become increasingly hostile territory for Musk’s brand. The latest figures show a 59% drop in France, 81% in Sweden—where a labor dispute continues to roil operations—74% in the Netherlands, and 50% in Switzerland. These are not peripheral markets but countries with strong economies, extensive EV infrastructure, and historically high electric vehicle adoption rates.
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Political Controversy Meets Commercial Fallout
However, Tesla’s crumbling momentum in Europe is not solely due to manufacturing delays or market fatigue. A growing consensus among analysts and insiders is that the company’s woes are deeply entangled with Elon Musk’s increasingly far-right political advocacy, both in the U.S. and abroad.
Musk’s polarizing political conduct has drawn concern even from Tesla’s most loyal customers. In Germany, Musk openly supported the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), a party recently declared an extremist organization. In the UK, his vocal support for white nationalist figures like Tommy Robinson has alienated mainstream consumers, leading to widespread disillusionment with Tesla’s brand image.
The fallout appears to be reaching Tesla’s boardroom. Although publicly denied, a WSJ report claimed that Tesla’s board had begun discreetly searching for a potential CEO successor—an indication of internal unease over Musk’s ability to balance Tesla’s business strategy with his growing political crusade.
DOGE and the Distracted CEO
Adding another layer to the distraction is Musk’s leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a federal agency created by President Donald Trump in 2025 to reduce wasteful government spending. Musk was appointed to lead DOGE with the goal of cutting $2 trillion from federal expenditures. So far, the agency has managed around $150 billion in reductions—a figure that has fallen far short of expectations.
DOGE’s efforts have been riddled with controversy. Musk’s use of AI to automate federal jobs, along with sweeping cuts that eliminated over 120,000 government positions, has ignited protests and legal challenges. Though Musk recently announced he would step back from DOGE to focus more on Tesla, many believe the damage, both to Tesla’s brand and investor confidence, may already be irreversible.
Critics say the agency, while ambitious in scope, became another platform for Musk’s ideological war against what he calls “woke bureaucracy.” That rhetoric has not played well in Europe, where public sentiment tends to favor institutional stability over brash libertarianism.
Sales Decline, The Cost of Musk’s Refusal to Back Down
Despite growing pressure, Musk has refused to temper his political tone. From attacking judges involved in cases against Trump to mocking opponents of his AI-powered government restructuring, Musk is believed to be leveraging the X platform as an extension of his personal ideology.
Even his limited public recommitment to Tesla, claiming he will “refocus” after stepping back from DOGE, has been met with skepticism. Investors remain uncertain whether the Tesla CEO is truly prepared to separate his political persona from the automaker’s commercial future.
While Germany and the UK have yet to release their April sales data, few expect a dramatic rebound. For a company once viewed as the vanguard of sustainable transport, Tesla now finds itself outpaced not just by rivals, but by its own CEO’s growing list of distractions and controversies.
Unless something changes drastically, either in tone, leadership, or strategy—Tesla risks cementing its decline in a market that once held its greatest promise.
