Summary

A survey of 100,000 Germans found that 94% refuse to buy a Tesla, signaling a major crisis for the company.

Tesla’s German sales dropped 70% in early 2025 after a 41% decline in 2024, despite overall EV sales rising.

Analysts attribute the slump to CEO Elon Musk’s far-right political endorsements, including promoting the AfD party and making Nazi-related gestures. Musk is under European investigation for political meddling.

With Tesla’s reputation plummeting, industry experts predict further losses in Germany’s competitive EV market.

  • SilentStorms@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    5 hours ago

    That’s pretty wild considering the rise of AfD support there.

    I wonder if Elon’s endorsement was a detriment to their election campaign.

    • LazyGit@feddit.org
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      3 hours ago

      I mean AfD made it pretty clear they are against Tesla when trying to stop the Tesla plant in Germany.

      Not sure how their brains work, maybe they don’t. 🤷🏼‍♂️

    • A_norny_mousse@feddit.org
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      3 hours ago

      I wonder if Elon’s endorsement was a detriment to their election campaign.

      No, definitely not. But imho it didn’t shift the needle upwards either. They’ve been on the rise for a long time and there was no jump during this election.

      But the next election in Europe might look different.

      And there’s a lot more to be said about American-based social media and far-right populist movements influencing our own flavors of the same for many years now.

    • fluffy@feddit.org
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      4 hours ago

      Well, they are afraid of electric vehicles, they want the good old polluting combustion engine.