As Tesla’s European gross sales plummet in August, automakers warn EV demand is ‘extraordinarily worrying’

The good news is it could have been much worse. 

Throughout most of this year, the one market that consistently has failed to respond to Musk’s combination of stimulative price cuts, discount financing rates and, in the case of his Model 3, light design refreshes has been the old continent. 

Europeans, spoiled for choice in a stagnant overall car market, are opting for rival brands with newer models better suited for domestic roads. As a result, Tesla has suffered a steady and persistent drop in market share beginning in March.

Following month after month of disproportionately weak sales, registrations of new Tesla cars fell exactly in line with the overall European EV market in August, providing some much-needed relief.

According to data published on Thursday by industry association ACEA, Tesla volumes dropped 36% last month versus the previous year to just 21,701 vehicles. 

This decrease was bang in line with overall EV demand across the broader European market. Including both EU members as well as non-EU states like the UK, Switzerland and Norway, EV sales in August shrank by the same amount. 

“The electric car market is now on a continual downward trajectory,” the ACEA said in a statement.

China looking brighter

While August is one of the least meaningful months on the calendar in terms of car sales, demand for EVs among Europeans also fell in May and July and was flat in June.

As a result, the continent’s EV market has now shrunk 5.5% in the first eight months to 1.21 million units. By comparison, overall demand eked out a 1.7% gain once other powertrains like hybrids are included. 

Due to the greater amount of competition, Tesla’s drop was much more dramatic during that same eight-month period. Volumes fell 15.8% to just over 200,000 vehicles. 

Elsewhere, the performance of Tesla is more promising, with China on track for a record third quarter—albeit helped in part by attractive financing rates that erode profit margins.

$TSLA China posted another strong 15.6K insured registrations for the week of Sept 9-15. After 11 weeks, with 2 weeks left in the quarter, TSLA China 3Q registrations are on track for their best quarter ever, and are +20% YoY and +26% QoQ. Source: @Tslachan @piloly pic.twitter.com/cHuuYv97gp

— Gary Black (@garyblack00) September 19, 2024

‘Extremely worrying’

Europe is entirely different. Competition comes mainly in the form of other European players heavily incentivized to sell a material share of EV to avoid prohibitively expensive regulatory fines levied by the EU Commission in Brussels. 

The BMW brand eclipsed Tesla as Europe’s market leader in July for the first time ever, according to the most recent monthly figures from market research firm JATO Dynamics.

Yet the severe drop in August across the entire EV market has spooked carmakers fearing the possibility of fines in the billions of euros. 

ACEA, a lobby group that represents most carmakers operating in Europe—though not Tesla—urged the incoming EU Commission to take measures to stimulate EV demand.

“The electric car market is now on a continual downward trajectory,” it said on Thursday, calling recent demand signals “extremely worrying”. 

Tesla didn’t respond to a Fortune request for comment.