15 comments

  • needcontainers 6 hours ago
    The article states that T-Online, a German news outlet, polled 100,000 readers, with 94% rejecting Tesla and only 3% considering a purchase. While the sample size is unusually large for a survey, the methodology isn’t detailed in the article. Online reader polls, like those often conducted by news sites, are typically self-selecting—participants choose to respond rather than being randomly sampled. This introduces significant bias, as those motivated to participate may already hold strong opinions, especially given Musk’s polarizing public image. Without information on how the survey was conducted (e.g., random sampling, controls for bias), its scientific validity is questionable.
    • tim333 5 hours ago
      Yeah, if you just phone random people they'll probably say Tesla is bad. It's different to a while later when the news has faded and they are actually buying a car and comparing options.
      • scarab92 4 hours ago
        It's also misleading to frame responses of "aren't considering buying a Tesla" as "won't buy a Tesla", because most of those respondents aren't considering buying any vehicle at all.
        • sshine 1 hour ago
          "I'm not buying a car! And I'm especially not buying a Tesla!"
    • simion314 6 hours ago
      Sales number are not good in germany either, but I know Elon fans have an excuse for this too. Anyway is clear that even if this numbers are not correct Tesla's image is fcked, now buying a Tesla is giving money to a nazi and an enemy (on top of the other Elon's "qualities")
      • mk89 5 hours ago
        Sales numbers are not good, ok, but a fact is: ID.7 is until now (2025) the most sold e-car. Just in front of ID.4 and ID.5.

        https://www.adac.de/news/neuzulassungen-kba/

        Even if you don't understand German there is graph showing how many Tesla cars were bought/registered in Feb 2025.

        • simion314 5 hours ago
          I know in EU Tesla sales are down compared to previous year while EV sales are up. We do not know for sure how much of this is Elon's comments and support of fascists and how much is other cars getting better, but if we wait more data will be available.
          • mk89 1 hour ago
            I think it's both. There is also a sense of "buy german cars because people are getting fired and losing jobs" etc. (=buy local)

            Very difficult to measure, but I wouldn't minimize it.

      • rendall 6 hours ago
        [flagged]
        • t1E9mE7JTRjf 6 hours ago
          sadly it's becoming reddit here, subjectivity indistinguishable from objectivity
          • rendall 5 hours ago
            My very mild question got flagged.
            • owebmaster 56 minutes ago
              the richest man in the world decided to do nazi signs. What do you need to be convinced?
            • CamperBob2 2 hours ago
              Because it wasn't an honest question. You have access to the same data sources as those who claim that Musk is at best Nazi-adjacent or Nazi-sympathetic. You have access to the same video (note video) of the salutes (note plural), access to the same news stories about Musk's support for far-right causes and organizations, and access to the same tweets in which Musk advocates policies, attitudes, and behaviors indistinguishable from those associated with 20th-century fascism.

              Obviously you disagree, but instead of saying as much, ideally using the same data sources to refute your opponents' arguments, you engaged in low-effort sealioning. Hence the flag.

            • mytailorisrich 4 hours ago
              [flagged]
        • jazzyjackson 6 hours ago
    • blueflow 5 hours ago
      T-Online is generally not representative.
    • mytailorisrich 6 hours ago
      The whole article is a bad political piece against Musk, with blatant falsehoods, masquerading as industry news.
  • mleroy 5 hours ago
    It seems clear by now that the Tesla brand has completely fallen out of favor with the progressive, high-earning, status-conscious demographic in Germany (their main buyer group). While there are tentative trends toward avoiding US products in general, I see little potential for this becoming widespread. Few people are actually boycotting Apple or Coca-Cola, and most continue to make a clear distinction between the American people and culture (which they consider close friends) versus the current US administration. I wonder how this compares to markets like Canada or Denmark? Are other brands facing similar challenges in those countries as well?
    • fifilura 5 hours ago
      Maybe not exactly the same thing, but obviously the arms industry is going to face some challenges because of the new American foreign policies.

      Maybe they will be offset by general increase in arms production, but Europe has alternatives to most of the weapons they currently buy from USA (including strategic air defense). They just need to scale up production.

      https://www.politico.eu/article/portugal-rules-out-buying-f-...

  • mk89 6 hours ago
    With more and more alternatives available, not sure why someone would in general buy a Tesla, at least here in Europe.

    They are very expensive and apparently not high quality as one would be expecting for that price. Add all the political "things" happening in the last months and that VW, BMW etc are waking up and you'll get a high number of people not wanting to buy a Tesla anymore. Probably not 94% but I think it's pretty close.

    • chupy 4 hours ago
      What alternatives in Europe?

      My wife had to buy a car last year, wanted to buy electric and Tesla was the only one that was ready to deliver within a month and at a decent price per features.

      Don't care about Elon but in the end all these corporations building the cars are on the same level of general disregard for the population or environment and just chasing profits. Doubt there is a real ethical choice when buying a car nowadays

  • LeonM 5 hours ago
    Teslas have been very popular in the Netherlands, and by far the best selling cars (Model 3 as of 2019 [0], Model Y in 2023 [1] and 2024 [2]), but sales have been declining for a while now. Though I'm not under the impressions that this has anything to do with Musk's recent actions, in my observation it's just that other car options have become available.

    Tesla became very popular because EVs were heavily subsidised and Tesla was the only good EV option for quite a few years. Other manufacturers either didn't have EVs, or they were very impractical, awkward and ugly.

    European manufacturers eventually woke up and started introducing EVs, and although they are a common sight on the street now (BMW, VW and Porsche in particular) they are still rather expensive, so Tesla remained popular for a while.

    But in recent year Korean (Kia, Hyundai) and Chinese (BYD, NIO, etc.) manufactured cars have matured a lot. Their designs have improved considerable to a point where my friends, who consider themselves hardcore car guys, actually like them. Now a new Kia or BYD (heck, even Hongqi) is becoming well accepted and seem on-par in social status as a Tesla.

    So this is purely anecdotal, but in my social circles at least nobody seems to consider Musk's actions in choosing a new car, it's just that other options have become available.

    [0] https://www.autoweek.nl/verkoopcijfers/2019/ [1] https://www.autoweek.nl/verkoopcijfers/2023/ [2] https://www.autoweek.nl/verkoopcijfers/2024/

  • Findecanor 6 hours ago
    Official sales figures have plummeted here in Sweden as well. I'm not surprised.
  • 2-3-7-43-1807 10 minutes ago
    there are many reasons why i wouldn't buy a tesla - none is of political nature.
  • GuestFAUniverse 5 hours ago
    "...a couple of Seig Heil..." -- that's not even a thing.

    It's "Sieg Heil". I've yet to read German articles doing so many errors when using or quoting foreign languages.

    Doesn't change the general quality of any article, but it bothers me, that English speaking journalists seem so outright ignorant when it comes basic proof reading -- names, locations, basic phrased,... often ridiculously botched.

  • numpad0 6 hours ago
    So that's why there is a hydrogen bus story on the top page right now...
  • formerly_proven 6 hours ago
    94% comes from a non-representative online poll, but Tesla sales already about halved in 2024 and the first months of 2025 saw another halving to 70+% reduction YoY. So it's certainly quite bad.

    But I also wonder, with germany being a very SUV-centric market, if this has something to do with the tesla SUVs (X and Y) just being uniquely butt-ugly. If you have working eyes, there are just so many options which look much nicer these days, and unlike ten years ago there is no big performance gap.

    • chneu 6 hours ago
      It has to do with other companies catching up and surpassing Tesla. Tesla's are a bad deal nowadays because of build quality and the company slashing prices(which kills resale value). Has tesla refreshed their lineup yet?

      Plus the whole CEO is a psycho nazi thing.

      edit: yeah, there's an article over on the verge talking aout how used tesla prices are plummeting because everyone wants to ditch their teslas. It's probably a decent time to buy a cheap tesla.

  • youngtaff 6 hours ago
    Oh look Musk’s fanboys have flagged the story…
  • hello_computer 6 hours ago
    It is ridiculous that it took politics and a trade war to get people to finally stop buying overpriced windows update control-grid pedestrian-mowers that take anywhere between 30 minutes and 12 hours to re-fuel. People are so hooked on their status symbols. He could have made underwear that randomly tazes your balls, and if he charged enough for it, and sold it in cute & seamless packaging, people would buy it!

    That's kind of the point of status symbols, isn't it? I have tattoos on my face, but still make more than your doctor. I bought an imported car that's in the shop half the time, but that's just an opportunity to drive one of my other imported cars. I wear underwear that zaps my jimmies every now and again, but... you get the picture.

  • secondary_op 5 hours ago
    observe how EU is brewing another global humanitarian crisis, war or just idiocracy.
  • anovikov 6 hours ago
    Now electric car transition there is done, too: they won't buy Teslas, but Chinese electric cars are banned, and European one are incredibly expensive, lose money to their makers, and just plain suck. All hope is for "european" cars made by Chinese brands that are "reassembled" (sometimes by doing as little as bolting the wheels on) from "kits" coming from China. Like Volvo. They are actually decent and may be better than Teslas.
    • atombender 5 hours ago
      I disagree that European EVs aren't good.

      The Volkswagen range (ID.3, ID.4, the ID.Buzz van) is excellent. Of all the EVs I've driven, the ID.3 is my favorite, far superior to a Tesla. I've driven rented EVs from Skoda, Opel, SEAT, Peugeot, etc., and they're all fine, if boring. If you count any brand available in Europe, Hyundai and Kia both have excellent EVs, including the Kia EV6 and EV9.

      Tesla have definitely nailed certain things that other manufacturers have struggled with. They're the only manufacturer that does a good UI (but like many others I deeply dislike that everything is on a poorly positioned screen), and their integration is excellent (things like automatic navigation to a supercharger when it knows it will need to charge to get to your destination).

      Tesla have also strived for more practical ranges; I find it really frustrating when other manufacturers launch new cars with 300-350km ranges, which is a step backwards.

    • mpweiher 6 hours ago
      In February 2025 electric car sales in Germany were up 30% year on year, whereas total sales were down 6%

      https://www.adac.de/news/neuzulassungen-kba/

      (This link is not dated, so contents will change in the future, the archive.org link is not up to February yet)

      Top 10 electric cars (again February 2025):

      1. VW ID.7

      2. VW ID.4, ID.5

      3. VW ID.3

      4. Skoda Enyaq

      5. Audi Q4

      6. Seat Born

      7. Tesla Model Y

      8. BMW 4ER

      9. BMW X1

      10. Seat Tavascan

      So the top 6 are all Volkswagen. And in total 7 of the top 10.

    • rockyj 6 hours ago
      > European one are incredibly expensive, lose money to their makers, and just plain suck

      Not true by any means. There are multiple options available and new cars are being planned / released all the time. Not to mention the second-hand market has ample choice.

    • jsemrau 6 hours ago
      No they are not. Here is an example how you can buy a NIO in Germany https://www.nio.com/de_DE/get-your-nio/kauf

      EV is on a decline in general after the end of government subsidies

      And Germany is still dominated by local brands. https://www.best-selling-cars.com/germany/2024-full-year-ger...

    • dgellow 6 hours ago
      Chinese electric cars aren’t banned, they are tariffed
      • blitzar 6 hours ago
        Big beautiful tariffs, many say they are the finest tariffs they have ever seen.
        • rwoerz 5 hours ago
          And then God spoke to me: "Sir, you have the greatest and most beautiful tariffs." And I said: "Yes, beautiful and great. Like the son I never had."
      • postepowanieadm 6 hours ago
        That's why Tesla has a factory in Germany. To avoid tariffs.
        • littlestymaar 6 hours ago
          Tesla was given favorable tariffs terms by the European commission, even fro vehicles made in China, but who know how long that will last with Musk insulting them daily.
        • mytailorisrich 6 hours ago
          Tesla is/was the largest importer of Chinese-made cars into Europe. That's why the EU tariffs are decided brand by brand (to spare Tesla and BMW mostly)
      • tpm 6 hours ago
        And also chinese cars that are put together in european factories are not loaded with tariffs, so they are starting to do that. I think Leapmotor in a Fiat factory in Poland is first?
    • bl0rg 6 hours ago
      Volvo is designed/engineered in Sweden and has a global production network with factories in Sweden, Belgium, the US, and China. You're massively oversimplifying.
    • dash2 6 hours ago
    • danieldk 5 hours ago
      We bought our first electric car last summer, we got an VW ID.3 and... we like it a lot. The pricing was pretty good, not much more expensive than a comparable VW combustion car. Apparently the infotainment system was quite bad/slow in older generations, but they fixed that in one of the upgrades and the on in ours is fast and works well.

      We couldn't be more happy with the purchase.

    • Retric 6 hours ago
      European, Japanese, and South Korean automakers haven’t achieved the economies of scale drive down EV prices, but they are getting better quickly.

      Tesla meanwhile has been stagnant for a while, which means people who wanted that that kind of car likely already bought one and don’t see much reason to buy a new one. The poor publicity from Elon isn’t helping but they peaked in 2023 even as total EV sales grew substantially in 2024.

    • D_Alex 6 hours ago
      >Now electric car transition there is done, too

      And right after that, the fight against climate change will be lost.

      Electric cars could have been the enabling technology for intermittent renewable power generation. Smart charging and back-feeding into the grid when needed could have largely solved the intermittency problem.

    • copx 6 hours ago
      >Now electric car transition there is done

      It is not. Only 18% of newly registered cars are electric i.e. over 80% of the people are still buying new CE cars, to say nothing about the massive used car market which is almost completely CE.

      • littlestymaar 6 hours ago
        I think you're misunderstanding “done” in the sense of “completed” when they meant “done” to say “dead”.

        Or maybe I am the one getting it backwards…

    • skylurk 6 hours ago
      By suck, are you referring to the budget low-range city car EVs?
    • littlestymaar 6 hours ago
      Betting on the inability of German automakers to make cars isn't something I'd do, personally, but OK.
    • formerly_proven 6 hours ago
      > European one are incredibly expensive, lose money to their makers, and just plain suck

      Nice 2019 talking point, bud.

    • roca 6 hours ago
      Musk's rightward lurch will be good for the electric car transition. His ideological opponents are just switching to other EV vendors. His ideological friends would normally not have considered buying an electric car, because anthropogenic climate change is a socialist hoax or something, but Trump is instructing them to buy Teslas as a sign of solidarity.
    • OfficeChad 4 hours ago
      [dead]
  • ineedaj0b 6 hours ago
    germany is in a slump and they need a strong leader to bring them back