New York (AP) – Europeans still do not buy Teslas with figures on Wednesday showing that sales plunged for a fifth consecutive month in May, a blow to investors who had hoped for anger at Elon Musk would now have disappeared.
Tesla sales fell 28% last month in 30 European countries, even if the overall electric vehicle market has extended strongly, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. The poor performance comes after the Tesla billionaire CEO had promised a “Major rebound” came last month, adding to a recent purchasing frenzy among investors.
They sold Wednesday, lowering prices by more than 4% in the early afternoon.
Musk said Tesla was sure to get a boost once the company had reoomicized its factories to produce a new version of its largest seller, the Y model. But it was finished months ago, and the new models are widely available. Investors now hope that a cheaper Tesla that should come out of the later year will help to reverse the drop in sales.
Overall, sales of battery electric vehicles increased by 25% in Europe compared to a year earlier. The electric vehicle market was particularly strong in Germany, where Musk has Angry potential buyers By publicly supporting the alternative to the far right and anti-immigrant for the German party in the elections. Overall sales of electric vehicles jumped 45%.
The Saic Motor of China was the big winner of the month with its European sales of EV and other types of cars jumping 38%. This allowed the company to jump Tesla, which sold more cars a year ago in the region.
SAIC sold 18,716 vehicles last month against 8,729 from Tesla.
The drop in sales of Tesla arrives at a crucial time for the company because it launch a test of its driverless service “Robotaxis” in Austin, Texas. Musk says that if it goes well, it expects to introduce service into several other cities in rapid succession and has up to a million automated taxis on roads by the end of the year.
Until now, criticism has been mainly good, but the service is limited to a dozen cars and some passengers have broadcast problems of problems during their rides, including one showing a Robotax go towards a path to oppose traffic.
Federal road safety regulators said on Tuesday that they were looking for videos.
