The U.S. EV maker has sustained brand and reputational damage in part due to CEO Elon Musk's incendiary rhetoric and political activity.

KEY POINTS

Tesla new car sales in Europe fell 27.9% year-on-year. in May.

The U.S. EV maker has sustained brand and reputational damage in part due to CEO Elon Musk’s incendiary rhetoric and political activity.

Chinese manufacturers, meanwhile, maintained their strong momentum in Europe’s new car market last month.

  • Redex@lemmy.worldEnglish
    112·
    6 hours ago

    Unrelated but I remember last year noticing that what used to be a Tesla dealership was turned into a BYD dealership in my country and couldn’t help but feeling how it was so representative of the situation

    • AbnormalHumanBeing@lemmy.abnormalbeings.spaceEnglish
      141·
      8 hours ago

      Not just him, but others in different ways. The German car manufacturing lobby, for example, has also slept on their market control and oligopoly, missed important developments, and is now complaining that the “Chinese are not playing fair”, after they lobbied politics and manipulated data to stifle the move to EVs (e.g. the big VW diesel emissions fraud scandal as probably the biggest story there).

      Are the Chinese “playing fair”? Well, they are not playing more crooked than what we already had, at least. And they provide something necessary (affordable EVs) for the current transition, and that transition was already direly needed yesterday. (Although of course, more broadly, favouring transit and reducing car-centered infrastructure is even more important, EVs are still a part of the equation.)

      • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.worldEnglish
        71·
        7 hours ago

        favouring transit

        China is largely dominating the electric bus market too. I doubt Europe particularly wants to bootstrap a lithium mining and refining industry to compete though. The Chinese companies are that vertically integrated.

  • Jake Farm@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    915·
    7 hours ago

    “We shall stop buying cars from that fascist by buying cars from this other fascist.” High IQ move right there.