Tesla has experienced some pretty bad press lately, and that ain’t changing yet. Now that the first quarter of 2025 is over and Q1 sales numbers are hitting the internet, Tesla won’t be catching a break any time soon. We’ve covered Tesla’s exceptional fall from sales grace in Germany, and now Q1 reports are in and it looks bleak for the EV company run by the richest man on the planet, who is a fervent supporter of Germany’s extremist far-right party. We knew German Tesla sales would struggle this quarter, but we didn’t know they would drop to less than half of what they were this time last year. Tesla didn’t even breach 5,000 cars in Germany in the first quarter of 2025, with just 4,935 Teslas sold.
That monumental decline didn’t impact Germany’s EV adoption rates, though. According to statistics released by Germany’s federal automobile agency, the Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt or KBA, the number of electric vehicles sold in Germany in March went up by 35.5% year-over-year. Tesla, meanwhile, sold 42.5% fewer vehicles in March of 2025 than in March of 2024 in Germany, moving just 2,229 cars. For context, Mini sold 2,488 cars in Germany last month, and Suzuki sold 2,659.
Tesla’s CEO has negatively impacted the automaker’s image
Musk, whose latest antics include wasting over $20 million in a desperate and failed attempt to prevent a Democratic candidate from winning a Wisconsin judicial election, is a vocal supporter of Germany’s pro-Trump, far-right party, the Alternative fur Deutschland party. Musk spoke in support of the AfD, and told an audience that modern rhetoric focuses too much on past guilt, in reference to the atrocities committed by Nazis. Not a good look.
Tesla’s global sales fell last quarter, too, though U.S. sales figures for Q1 2025 won’t be released until April 22. Globally, Tesla reported 336,681 deliveries in Q1 2025, which is 13% lower than Q1 2024. The American EV maker did face planned partial shutdowns in some factories to allow for manufacturing upgrades in order to transition to producing the facelifted Model Y, which could be another contributing factor to its decline in Q1 sales. Q1 2025 marks Tesla’s lowest quarterly sales in almost three years.
