Musk’s more tight-lipped competitors saw increases of battery electric car sales by 27.8% in April, compared with a 22.4% drop in petrol cars and a 24.7% drop in diesel cars. Sales of plug-in hybrids were up by 31.3%. Total car registrations rose most for the Chinese state-owned manufacturer SAIC, owner of the former British brand MG, and Japan’s Mitsubishi.

The European Union’s new car market edged down 1.2% in the first four months of 2025 from a year earlier, data from showed. The decline comes despite a 1.3% year-on-year rise in April registrations, offering tentative signs of stabilization amid ongoing economic pressures.

“By now, at the halfway point of 2025, it is safe to say that the slump is real. It appears the launch of a thoroughly revamped Model Y has (so far) done little to stop the bleeding,” Nick Augusteijn, an auto industry journalist based in the Netherlands, told Lube Report..

As for sales, Augusteijn pointed out that Tesla sales in Norway and the Netherlands increased sharply in May but are still below the level of the same month last year. \

Augusteijn thinks a turnaround for Tesla’s fortunes is possible, and the key would be price. Musk must make good on promises of other budget-conscious models, as well as the Model Y launch.

“That rollout, combined with Musk’s departure from politics, might offer a Tesla a way back to the front of the grid,” he said.