BACKLASH

Elon Musk’s Far-Right Politics Are Tanking Tesla Sales

Europeans appear to be looking for an alternative to Tesla.

Sales of Tesla cars have nosedived across some of the EV manufacturer’s most valuable European markets—and experts are blaming Elon Musk. Sales in Germany, where Tesla has a factory, dropped a staggering 59 percent in January compared to the same month last year, according to the Financial Times. While the overall German EV market surged by more than 50 percent, Tesla’s share collapsed from 14 percent to just 4 percent. The billionaire has waded into German politics, openly supporting the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) ahead of the country’s Feb. 23 elections. Musk even gave AfD leader Alice Weidel a platform on X for a 75-minute livestream in which she made the false claim that Adolf Hitler was a socialist. The backlash has been swift, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and opposition leader Friedrich Merz slamming Musk for endorsing a party linked to extremist rhetoric and mass deportation plans. Meanwhile, Tesla owners in Germany are scrambling to distance themselves—one entrepreneur has been swamped with orders for a bumper sticker reading, “I bought this before Elon went crazy.” The FT reports that Tesla sales in France were down 63 percent in January, while registrations of new Teslas in Norway fell 38 percent.

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