Summary
Tesla’s European sales are plummeting, with Germany seeing a 60% drop despite strong EV growth. Similar declines hit Norway, Sweden, and France.
While some blame the Osborne effect—buyers delaying purchases for a refreshed Model Y—Musk’s endorsement of Germany’s far-right AfD may also be repelling customers.
Online backlash has linked Tesla to fascist imagery. In contrast, UK sales fell only 7.8%, suggesting political factors play a role.
With strong domestic EV competition in Europe, Tesla’s reputation crisis could further hurt demand.
Can we send another tesla to space with the musk rat tied to it?
I always like to point out that Mr. “We Must Colonize Mars” is too chickenshit to get on one of his own rockets. Even motherfucking Bezos had enough balls to do that.
Not even just him, but a whole group of other rich people and celebrities.
OceanGate happened too soon and with wrong people.
Strap him to the heatsheild on the next starship flight.
still too close. send the sob on a Voyager parts replacement mission.
nevermind. thats probably one more step on the path to v’ger.
Having lived in a couple of countries in Europe, including a decade in Britain, I would say the UK is one of the most Fascist countries in Europe (for example having a citizen surveillance system even more extreme than the US and Press censorship in the form of D-Noticies), though elites there are extremelly good at being subtle and posh about it so the will keep up appearences: you won’t see goose stepping on the streets but for example in peaceful demonstrations the police will charge the crowd and News will report that - by showing the footage in the inverse order - as people first charging the police who then responded to it and you won’t see an overt Secret Police but once in a while out pops a leak of a special group within the normal police infiltrated Ecologist groups with undercover police officers (which came out because some female Ecologists ended up pregnant) or how their surveillance organisation kept Greenparty leaders under surveillance.
Back during the Nazi times the British elites were even pro-Nazi (there’s a picture of Queen Elizabeth as a child being taught by her uncle - then King - to do a Nazi salute) and it was only the Nazi invasion of Belgium that changed their minds, so geopolitics rather than a dislike of the Nazi ideology of ethnic superiority (notice how over the years British elites kept supporting white colonialism and their violence, from Appartheid South Africa to Genocide Israel). More in general, the elites over there (which are overwhelmingly dynastic in nature, and I don’t mean just the Royal Family) are strong believers in their own inherent superiority over others as justification for their wealth, so the whole ubermenschen and untermenschen thinking applied along class lines rather than just races (but races too: Brits tend to believe themselves superior to just about all foreigners but Americans and for example some of the most celebrated heroes of Britain - such as Churchill - actually ordered the execution of Genocides in the British Empire possessions).
All this to say that to me, having lived over there for a decade, the British’s minimal response to Fascism compared to the rest of Europe isn’t surprising - they live in a Society than in many ways runs along similar molds, harbours similar ideations about the inherent worth of people and is (including the Press) controled by elites who mostly are the same families that supported Nazism before Hitler invaded Belgium.
Most of Europe was okayish with the Nazi to be fair. We would evn turn away Jewish refugees before the war. Let’s be clear that WW2 didn’t happen because of the Genocides but only because of the invasions of other countries. The UK is not special in that regard.
My impression from living there is that the UK never ditched the mindset that some people are born inherently superior to others, and that’s both for different parts of British society along the axis of class (and in many cases also the different nations of the UK, with the English often seeing themselves as superior) and towards foreigners (Brexit did not happen in a vacuum).
I have the theory that is because the UK never really had a Revolution started from below (the closest they had were the Barons rebeling against the King leading to the Magna Carta or the Catholic-vs-Protestant fighting which was mainly different factions of the elites re-approportioning power) or Occupation by a foreign power that crushed the existing elites and loosened their power over the entire system, hence the established elites never really changed and thus the power structures in Britain, who those structures serve and who controls them, has changed a lot less over the last couple of centuries than elsewhere in Europe.
They’re not as much Fascists in a traditional sense but more a continuation of a Monarchic semi-Autocratic system were the power of the King was weakenned centuries ago and divided amongst the rest of the Landowner Class and later the Trading Burgeoisie without really reaching the lower classes in full (the closest to it ever happenning was post-War Britain and that has been reverted in the last 4 decades).
Fascism in Europe one of the reactions to Republicanism, but the UK never had a Republican phase and so a lot of the ideas on power and the worth of people in Fascism which are really just re-hashed monarchic thinking on who are the proper rulers and justifying it are still present in the British system in their natural (though more sophisticated in means and appearence) form.
All this to say that, yeah, I agree with you, it’s just that I don’t think their love for the Nazi ideology back then was quite driven by the same reasons as many other countries in Europe (though remember how even in Germany the Nazis had some support from the Monarchics) and that whilst elsewhere in Europe the elites that held such thinking were dethroned, in Britain they held on to power to the present day.
Weirdly though while that is still very much an authotarian system, it will always be a hard break on any too unhinged ideas of populism. It simply is not in the interest of the Elite.
That isn’t meant to be an excuse, but it will mostly prevent the hateful or ignorant to grasp the majority of power and change the state beyond the point of no return. The point we fear might be passed soon in the USA, as well as Italy, Germany, Austria and all other countries where the far-right populists are on the rise, without being kept in check
Not sure if it’s just the promotion of the far-right parties.
For me at the latest after his “Heil Hitler” salute I’d be completely ashamed driving that car.
Might be interesting to see the exact daily timeline of the sales, if it collapsed after the 20th january.
I wish they stopped using that image of Musk. It makes all the different news items look the same.
It should be the only image ever shown of Musk from now on.
I was about to say the opposite. I am delighted that they put the same picture of this Nazi every time there is an article about him or Tesla. Keep up the good work, and never forget that he’s a Nazi.
I think it’s important to keep using this image of Musk. It’s the most direct way to remind people that this powerful man working to destroy every government department from within is an unelected Nazi.
Then put it inside of the article but not as the thumbnail.
You want to bury the image of Trump being a Nazi shithead? Why for would you ever wanna do that? Your above stated answer rings hollow because you can just RTFA.
That’s just a straw man argument.
I’m saying every news article now has the same thumbnail so half of the time I don’t even notice the new evil stuff he is doing. That’s BAD because it’s the opposite of what we should be doing. Which is to recognize all the bad stuff he’s doing. But now it’s all just “oh he’s saluting again”.
I even believe there is a small chance they are forcing this image down our throats to make us immune to it.
So again, stop using the same thumbnail all the time, add it somewhere in the article or or post it in the comments or wherever. Because that’s all absolutely amazing and I support that.
It’s like your phone would have the same icon for every app. At some point you don’t even notice the new ones.
/s?
They are.
Nazi shit does shit head thing
You couldn’t pay me to drive one
Dude every single time one of my uber/lyft drivers picks me up in a Tesla, I alwats have some kind of issue. The door handles fail to extend to let me get in (what problem was this design even solving?), when I’m inside the way to open the door is so counter-intuitive even after doing it a few times it still takes me way too long to get it open (dumbest design ever…it’s just a button?), the seatbelt buckle doesn’t click, etc… Cheap fuckin construction.
Just terrible, stupid, designs. Add in the fascist bullshit? Fucking forget it. This asshole is ruining a good chance to cut down on emissions by being the face of EVs
The door handles were supposed to be more aerodynamic, but other manufacturers have solved the issue more elegantly.
We’re the four handles really adding that much drag? I can’t imagine.
Not that much, but definitely measurable. A Tesla competitor did some tests and they got a 1% range increase.
Replacing side mirrors with cameras also has a similar impact, but costs like 3.000 euros as an option.
So your choice of wheels has a bigger impact, but it’s not totally pointless. And cheap to do.
Traditional door handles actually reduce smug flow by 60% - the Tesla door handles produce a much more smugrodynamic profile.
This asshole is ruining a good chance to cut down on emissions by being the face of EVs
maybe that was the plan
The door handles are just fucking dumb… and on the inside the door release is a… button? Why?
To give the car time to lower the window a few millimeters and avoid damaging the seal. Plus someone probably thought it would look cool or something. There’s a manual release in case the car loses power, or something breaks.
It’s not unique to Teslas either, a few other cars have done the same thing.
A button which requires the car’s power to be working.
Don’t worry, there is an emergency release! It takes a little while to get to, so I hope the burning Tesla you’re trapped inside doesn’t burn too quickly.
“Give me a lever long enough, and a place to stand, and I will move the earth” - 287-212 BC
“Just give me a damn lever” - 2025
If I ever see a fucking Cybertruck here, I’m moving to Antarctica.
weird. i guess some people just arent interested in driving Swasticars
“Car” is too big a word, “Nazimobil” fits better
Hakencruisers
Nazivaggen
SSyberwagen
Mobil while spelt wrong for a synonym for car, is longer then the word car.
Mobil is german for Mobile, so it still fits imo (that’s a lazy excuse for my brain not red-flagging the word for being wrong as it is correct in a language I speak, therefore being legit)
Also, “too big a word” afaik means the symbolic, so that calling Teslas “cars” overvalues them. They are not cars, they are merely mobile. Nazimobiles.
Deploreans.
Fashmobile
There’s no H in fascist.
There is when you abbreviate it to one syllable.
Hopefully, the Tesla nose dive spreads to his other businesses.
It is fascinating how little this correlates to the Tesla stock price. It has dropped a bit, down 8.4% in the last month, but it still up 80.8% over the last 6 months. I´m curious what kind of business model the shareholders is expecting from Tesla that does not involve selling cars.
In my opinion this shows how fucking unrelated the whole financial sector is to reality.
It should be shut down or unrelated to the real world.
I imagine that the federal government will be buying Teslas by the shipload
The army will be replacing humvees with cybertrucks.
Tesla will announce a CyberTank to replace the M1
i’m only sort of joking
Edit: HA! fucking called it
The share price isn’t based on car sales. If it were just about car sales, it would be about 10% of the price it is now.
The share price is mostly ridiculous, but it is also people trying to get in early, on the assumption that they solve FSD, battery storage, Optimus (their robot), and battery manufacturing.
If they solve all of this, then Tesla could 10x again. It’s very future dependent, and I think that future is a lot longer away than a lot of other shareholders think.
I got in at ~$20 per share. I’ve significantly reduced my position over the last few months, but I do still believe in the original mission of Tesla. I just don’t think they’re going to get there with Elon.
IMHO only FSD is something they could potentially achieve, but it took them so long the competition is catching up. At least in Europe (where Teslas have barely functioning traffic sign recognition) other manufacturers have level 3 ADAS in production. Like legally certified and everything.
Their batteries ( both mobile and grid storage) are nothing special, the 4680 is MiA, catl and BYD have bigger market shares already, I don’t know about Panasonic and other manufacturers, could be too.
And the robot is vaporware unless proven otherwise.
I’m not a gambler so I won’t short it (Elon can give himself trillions in government assistance now), but sure as hell wouldn’t hold it anymore.
Their batteries may not be special, but if they can scale to what they were promising a few years ago (which is a much bigger “if” than it used to be), their battery business could easily surpass BYD’s, which could justify its current market cap on its own (but not much higher).
I’ve got mixed feelings on FSD. I think it’s nearly “solved” for places with nice climate, but I think there’s a lot of work needed to deal with inclement weather like snow and slush and even heavy rain. I don’t think any company has any idea how to solve that issue, so they’re just pushing it down the road until someone else solves it first.
How would they scale it? I don’t think they have the factories even if they figure out the process. Last time I looked they had 2 (or 3?) locations.
Their factories in Nevada, Texas, and China all have a lot of extra space and/or land for expansion. They’ve also been considering building more factories in Mexico, another one in Europe, and possibly SE Asia, though it’s unclear whether any of those are going to materialize - especially with the current downturn in sales.
The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent…or sth like that.
“In the short term, the market is a voting machine, but in the long term, it is a weighing machine” - Benjamin Graham (“father” of value investing and mentor to Warren Buffett)
Meaning that in the short term, stock prices can be swayed from a company’s true value by investors’ emotions and opinions.
But eventually the stock price will align with the company’s actual profitability and growth potential.
And you’re right that these are crazy times, and the “short term” irrationality can last a lot longer than past experiences.
Historically, we’ve used examples like the 17th century tulip mania, or the dot com boom, but it won’t surprise me if Tesla becomes the poster child for this quote in the future.
Judging on the fact that it jumped up after election day, investors are expecting corporate nepotism to boost profits.
My understanding ia that they get carbon credits for producing EVs which they then sell to carbon producers to offset. They also produce batteries.
That being said, its not going to take a deep dive unless they have consecutive missed eps targets. Even then though, part of Elons MO is to promose some visonary tech that takes year to peoduce so just sitbtight man becauae im telling you its coming…
This time around its robots for the home. Laughable not because we dont have the technology, but who has the disposable income to afford it? Even if they come out, and it turns out people buy them (which also means not heing turned off by musk); where is the moat? What stops a competitor like boston dynamics, samsung, etc from seeing it as validation of a market and then entering it?
IIRC this fact also had to do with a German government subsidizing EVs that ended late last year, I could be wrong to. Any German that can help clear this up?
Iirc, the subsidy was ~7000€. When the subsidy ended, car prices dropped by roughly 5000€. Meaning, there was a gift for the manufacturers and nothing changed. Of course, you can’t brag about your 40k car anymore because it’s only 35k now. And other smaller effects like the ads are different now.
When it comes to EVs, the US is on the wrong side of history. Tesla may be there, but the US main export is oil and has been for at least 15 years.
Tesla is valuable because they’re looking to put taxi drivers out of a job forever.
China on the other hand has hardly any oil. Same with most of Europe. On this issue at least, we should be allies.
Between them the US, Russia and Saudi Arabia will still boil the Earth, but at least we won’t be fuelling their war machines while they do.
The thing is that the far right in Germany is nowhere near as popular as the Republicans in the US. And the intersection of Tesla buyers and far right voters is very small. Musk made a grave mistake in the marketing department here.
Comparable to endorsing Jill Stein in the US as company for small arms.
I must say congratulations to Mr. Musk on finally finding that one special picture that will live on in the history books. You wanted to be remembered, and you are well on your way to having the name “Elon” be right up there with “Adolf” when people are choosing names for their children.
I bet someday we (the younger side of Lemmy) will be helping our kids with history homework and get jumpscared by this pic.
Elon Shitler has a nice ring to it. #PresidentElon please use this hashtag in all your sm post. We need to sew divide wherever we can and baby Trump really cares about shit like this. ✊🏻
I kind of think this was intentional, because the picture everyone used before this was the dorky one of him jumping at the Trump rally. I’m sure he prefers this one.
I wasn’t thinking of it that way, but you are probably right.
I was thinking he can’t have real immortality so he settled on being as memorable as possible. But in his twisted conservative mind, maybe this is him wanting to be remembered as a hardass rather than an [insert slur for gay men].
Two of my coworkers were the biggest Elon fanboys and were the first in the office to drive Teslas. That was years ago though. I hear a lot less from them now. I wonder why…
I’m probably not your coworker, but it was the case with me. I liked the guy when he was a weird nerd and I liked the car.
I still like the car to be honest but I’m seriously considering buying a bumper sticker with “I bought this before I knew he was a Nazi”.
No way I’m buying another one as long and he’s related to the company in any way.
I’d be bloody embarrassed if I drove one.
The Rivian R3X can’t come soon enough.
Swatzicar!!!
