Tesla (TSLA) can't find the bottom in Europe

2/3/2026 at 1:19:45 AM

Picking a fight with the European labor unions was not a smart move in hindsight.

Backing AfD in Germany and calling them Germany's "best hope for the future" likely rubs the rest of the non-AfD polity the wrong way. He turned driving a Tesla into a political stance in Germany.

by marwamc

2/3/2026 at 2:02:27 AM

It is here in the US too. I drive on OG Model Y and silently judge new Model 3/Y purchasers. Trained to do so by the Cybertruck.

by browningstreet

2/3/2026 at 1:54:10 PM

And various other European far-right parties; it wasn't just AfD.

Also, y'know, the salute (still amazed that he was pretty much given a pass for that in the US).

by rsynnott

2/3/2026 at 2:31:03 AM

>Picking a fight with the European labor unions

Trying to rule when the local custom is to negotiate - US companies keep repeating that mistake. It has not gone well once that I'd know of. Unions are often more concerned about the long term than company leadership, that's an asset!

by ahartmetz

2/2/2026 at 9:31:04 PM

Wordy-Title: Tesla (TSLA) can’t find the bottom in Europe as 2026 starts with another brutal decline

by Bender

2/3/2026 at 1:35:42 AM

There's lots of support at 0

by Tiktaalik

2/3/2026 at 1:26:45 AM

Canadians are starting to hate Tesla too. Why alienate liberal aligned people by acting like a fascist?

by NuclearPM

2/2/2026 at 9:44:40 PM

The popularity of the Volkswagen shows that Europe has no objection to (formerly) Nazi cars, but there are limits ...

by jjgreen

2/3/2026 at 1:56:19 PM

So, VW as a brand has origins there, but there's little other continuity. It's a fairly different situation.

by rsynnott

2/2/2026 at 11:31:58 PM

Same for Ford in the US, right?

by dgellow

2/3/2026 at 12:01:33 AM

I once saw a Volkswagen with the vanity plate "FORD". A little concerning.

by eurleif

2/3/2026 at 12:49:06 AM

I think people are missing the joke here (notice the italicised 'are').

by pkaodev

2/3/2026 at 12:45:19 PM

Not uncommon :-)

by jjgreen

2/2/2026 at 11:56:16 PM

Indeed,"formerly" carries real weight. It's one thing to have car company with highly distributed ownership that was once Nazi aligned the better part of a century ago, and an entirely different thing to today have a personal piggy bank company for a billionaire Nazi active in global politics.

by asadotzler

2/3/2026 at 12:38:25 AM

If a VW exec throws a Hitler salute in public, they will no longer have a job the next day.

When Musk does it, he gets a trillion-dollar pay package.

So no, there's no comparison to be drawn here.

by CamperBob2

2/2/2026 at 11:02:56 PM

Long ago Nazi vs currently another brainfart away from invading

by ahartmetz

2/3/2026 at 9:18:23 AM

[dead]

by MuskIsAntidemo

2/3/2026 at 12:00:19 AM

> Across the wider region (EU, UK, EFTA), market share fell to 1.7% by November 2025

Tesla was never mainstream in Europe.

by slaw

2/3/2026 at 1:59:59 PM

It was never super-mainstream, but it was the top EV group in terms of sales for a few quarters (mostly in 2019). It'll likely soon no longer be in the top ten; looks like for Q1 it's on track to be smaller than Stellantis (the company which owns all the brands that you're surprised still exist) and Geely, who themselves are marginally relevant in Europe.

by rsynnott

2/3/2026 at 7:50:07 PM

Tesla was never super-mainstream, regular-mainstream or mainstream. It was top EV when there were no other EVs. Stellantis has 16% market share in Europe.

by slaw