https://cleantechnica.com/2026/01/08/teslas-germany-sales-down-72-from-their-peak/ * Skip to content CleanTechnica [INS::INS] [ ] * Clean Energy + Solar Energy + Wind Energy + Energy Storage + Geothermal Energy + Smart Grid + Energy Efficiency * Electric Vehicles + All EV News & Analysis + EV Sales + EV Total Cost of Ownership + EV Reviews o Tesla Model 3 Long-Term Review o Tesla Model Y Long-Term Review o Tesla Model S Long-Term Review o Chevy Bolt EUV Long-Term Review o All Reviews * BYD News * Tesla News * Exclusives + CleanTechnica Analysis + CleanTechnica Reviews + CleanTechnica Reports & Guides + CleanTechnica.TV (YouTube) + CleanTech Talk (Podcast) * Series Pages + Electric Vehicle Charging o EV Fleet Charging o How to Charge An EV At Home o Fast Home EV Charging + Battery Powered EV Charging + Aftermarket Tesla Accessories + Best Tesla Accessories + Home Efficiency + Microgrids Explained + Vanadium Flow Batteries Demystified + Home Solar -- Simplified + Climate Resilience Prize + Sustainable Innovation * About + Connect With CleanTechnica + Testimonials: Why Readers Love CleanTechnica + Contact CleanTechnica + Support CleanTechnica + Advertise With CleanTechnica + Our Team + Editorial Ethics + Terms of Use + Mission & Vision + Invest + Privacy Policy + RSS + Syndicate Our Content [Tesla-Gigafactory-Berlin-800x445] Tesla's Germany Sales Down 72% From Their Peak! January 8, 2026January 9, 20262 days ago Zachary Shahan 0 Comments --------------------------------------------------------------------- Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe. --------------------------------------------------------------------- After writing about Tesla's 10% drop in sales in the UK despite the UK EV market rising 24%, and BYD passing up Tesla in the UK in annual sales last year, a reader pointed out some extra jaw-dropping stats. The reader, "manes," posted the numbers for Tesla in Germany in the past 5 years. If you get nauseous looking at gory scenes, turn away now. Here's what "manes" shared: "Numbers from Germany: * 2025: 19,390 * 2024: 37,574 * 2023: 63,685 * 2022: 69,965 * 2021: 39,714 So Tesla fell to 28% of its peak in '22." Wowza! Tesla sales in Germany, the largest auto market in Europe, dropped 72% in 2025 compared to Tesla's best year in that country, way back in 2022. Edit/update: Also note that the BEV market grew by 43% in 2025! After 2022, Tesla had a modest but clear drop in sales in 2023, and then they had a huge collapse in sales in 2024 -- which Tesla was supposed to bounce back from last year thanks to the refreshed Model Y coming to town -- but that wasn't the end! Sales dropped even significantly further in 2025, dropping almost 50%! Going from 69,965 sales in the company's peak year to 63,685 sales the following year, then a shocking 37,75 sales, and then to 19,390?! The year Tesla opened Giga Berlin, it looked like it was only upward for Tesla in Europe. And then it crashed hard, year after year after year. Of course, a big factor for Tesla's sales drop in Germany was Elon Musk getting involved in hardcore right-wing politics. Musk strongly endorsed the AfD (Alternative for Germany) political party in recent years, a political party identified as an extremist, far-right party. "In the 2024 Thuringian state election, the AfD became the first far-right party in Germany since the Nazi Party to win a plurality of seats in a state election. The AfD also performed strongly in Brandenburg and Saxony," Wikipedia writes. "On 23 February 2025 AfD won 20.8% of the vote in the German federal election, second to the CDU/CSU. It gained 10.4 percentage points over the 2021 election result." So, yes, the party got more popular in the past couple of years, but that doesn't mean it is popular. The large majority of Germans do not support it, and many are shocked and disgusted by its political stances. Throwing his support behind AfD, Musk stimulated huge anti-Tesla sentiment in the country. Musk also made some abhorrent comments regarding Nazis and Hitler that went even a step further. We have a German on our leadership team who has been saying for a while that the Tesla brand is completely in the ditch, hated, and hopeless in Germany now. Despite having a factory there and the brand being very popular a few years ago, his take is that no one wants a Tesla any more, and that the cars aren't even the best in tech any more. I wasn't sure how much his comments reflected the whole market, but dropping from 69,965 annual sales to 19,390 annual sales in three years is a dramatic drop that is almost unheard of in the auto industry. It takes a lot of work to drop that far that fast. Also, beyond the brand hit from Elon Musk's activities, it is true that German automakers BMW, Mercedes, and Volkswagen, among others, have been rolling out new EV after new EV, and Tesla has lost its competitive edge in the country. The big question is: what will Tesla's numbers be in Germany, and in Europe more broadly, in 2026 and beyond? What is in store now for the company that once dominated the EV market? --------------------------------------------------------------------- Sign up for CleanTechnica's Weekly Substack for Zach and Scott's in-depth analyses and high level summaries, sign up for our daily newsletter, and follow us on Google News! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Advertisement [INS::INS] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Sign up for our daily newsletter for 15 new cleantech stories a day. Or sign up for our weekly one on top stories of the week if daily is too frequent. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here. CleanTechnica's Comment Policy --------------------------------------------------------------------- Share this story! * Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn * Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp * Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook * Click to share on Bluesky (Opens in new window) Bluesky * Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email * Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit * Zachary Shahan Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about electric vehicles and renewable energy at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curacao. Zachary Shahan has 8815 posts and counting. 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