Tesla’s European dominance under threat

Tesla’s dominance in the European electric vehicle market could be coming to an end.

New figures have revealed that its market share fell from 29% to 18.7% last month amidst growing threats from other manufacturers in both Europe and China.

The news comes at a trying time for the brand after it announced earlier this week that it would cut its workforce by 10%.

However, Tesla’s stalling EV sales numbers is not an isolated case. According to Bloomberg Intelligence, accumulated EV sales fell by 13% in March. This comes after volumes in February were also below what they were in February 2023, and Bloomberg Intelligence is not predicting a significant uplift through the rest of the year. Its data suggests that EVs will account for 18% of all vehicle sales during 2024, which is only marginally up from the 15.3% in 2023.

Meanwhile, car sales as whole are forecast to be two per cent down in the first quarter of the year compared to the first quarter of 2023, recovering marginally to finish the year flat.

Michael Dean, senior autos analyst, said: “A lacklustre economic backdrop doesn’t necessarily mean fewer new-car sales in 2024, because volume is still close to previous European recession lows and we expect net prices to fall as automakers battle for market share. Still, tightening consumer budgets amid high interest rates may keep sales growth in the single digits. Easy prior-year comparisons, pent-up demand and inventory-channel rebuilding that supported registrations in 2023 could give way to normalising production and shrinking order backlogs. We see sales to be relatively flat versus the prior year.”