Sinking in: Tesla EV sales are tanking in Australia

While the Tesla CEO is busy rage-tweeting, Roman saluting, dialling into far-right German political rallies, cutting aid funding and sacking US government workers, sales of his car brand in Australia, as well as the rest of the world have gone over a cliff, with January’s poor results continuing in February.

The plunge for Nasdaq-listed EV maker is nearly double the broader drop in Australian EV sales for the month, down around 37%, and dragged down primarily by Tesla, which plummeted 72% on a year ago with just 1592 cars sold.

The February 2024 figure, before CEO Elon Musk became distracted by politics, was 5665 cars.

The falls are not dissimilar to Germany’s, where sales dropped 76% in February, following a 60% fall in January. Musk supported the far-right ‘Alternative for Germany’ party during the country’s recent national election. Sales in France also fell by more than 60%.

There was one brief bright spot for Musk’s brand in Canada, however.

Tesla reported that it sold 8,653 vehicles in just three days at four Tesla outlets, including more than 1,200 on January 11 at a store in Toronto.

It generated $43.1 million in government EV rebates for Tesla, coincidentally, just as the government announced the program was shutting down on January 13. Canadian officials are investigating Tesla’s sudden popularity for the C$5000 rebate just as it was paused.

Back in Australia Tesla lost its crown as the country’s best-selling EV brand in February, crushed by Chinese rival BYD, which topped the monthly sales chart for just the second time.

While it was just 270 cars ahead in October 2024 (1732 cars to Tesla’s 1464), in February the Chinese EV manufacturer sold two BYDs – 3281 cars – for every Tesla Model 3 (668) or Model Y (942) hitting the road.

BYD has nearly doubled its sales on 12 months ago. It’s also launching Australia’s first sub-$30,000 EV, the Dolphin hatch.

In January, Tesla saw a 33% fall in sales to 739 EVs, compared with 1107 cars 12 months ago. It was the worse result since July 2022.

Model 3 sales figures plunged 62% to 274 vehicles from 723 in January last year. Just two years ago the Model 3 accounted for 60% of EV sales in Australia.

It builds on the brand’s decline in 2024, when global sales fell for the first time. Australia posted a 17% fall in Tesla sales as the broader number of EV sold rose 4.7% to make up 7.4% of new car sales. Tesla was still the market leader, but its market share has fallen to 42% amid a slew of new brands hitting Australian shores and roads last year.

Tesla, lacking updates as the CEO prefers to focus on getting a US$60 billion bonus, is being seen as a tired brand, although an updated and more expensive version of the Model Y is due to land in Australian shores in the coming months.

In the meantime, Tesla stock has fallen by more than a third (35%) in 2025, to around US$262, shedding most of the astonishing rise made in the wake of US president Donald Trump’s election, when the share price peaked in mid December at just under US$480.

Tesla shares have fallen for seven weeks straight since Trump took power, the longest losing streak since the company listed 15 years ago.

Wall Street analysts have been cutting their targets on the stock.

The falls have cost Musk around US$121 billion in his personal wealth.

It’s not the billionaire’s only problem with his tech companies while he plays Washington bureaucrat, claiming non-existent financial savings and calling people who actually know what they’re talking about “fully retarded” when they correct him.

Last week another SpaceX Starship rocket exploded as it took off . The eight flight was the second rocket to blow up during a test flight this year – once again forcing more than 200 flights around Florida to be diverted as the debris rained down.

Musk’s also not endearing himself to South African officials after falsely claiming that Starlink is banned from operating there “because I’m not black”.

Neither Starlink, nor its parent company SpaceX, have applied to operate there, South Africa’s telecommunications regulator said.

What triggered the world’s richest man appears to be a local law that foreign-owned telecommunications licensees should divest 30% of their locally-based subsidiary to historically disadvantaged groups.

SpaceX wants the regulator to waive the 30% rule for them to enter that market. Assumedly because Musk needs the money.

* EDITOR’S NOTE: The day after this story was published, Tesla shares fell another 15% to US$222. The company has now lost A$1.2 trillion in market cap in 2025.