- The first few months of 2025 have seen Tesla’s year-on-year sales and registrations figures drop across many European countries, as we’ve previously reported on.
- In the first quarter of the year, Volkswagen overtook Tesla for the first time to become the most registered EV brand across Europe.
- However, with the new Model Y now starting to arrive in Europe, and one country seeing early signs of a rebound, is Tesla’s sales slump about to end?
Will the new Tesla Model Y bring Tesla’s sales back?
Delving into Tesla’s own UK registrations data brings some valuable insights into the performance of the brand, and hints at what we could expect over the next few months.
Focusing on the UK’s latest EV registration figures for the month of May, Tesla registrations stood at approximately 2,000 units – down from approximately 3,000 in May 2024. April saw a similar year-on-year registration decline, with around 450 units registered in April 2025 compared to approximately 1,200 in April 2024. This is despite Tesla’s UK registration figures for January, February, and March all seeing year-on-year rises.
During these earlier months, Tesla’s UK arm sold out of its pre-facelift Model Ys, with a wide-scale rollout of the facelifted Model Y still not expected in the UK until later this month, as right-hand-drive production for the UK sees a delayed rollout compared to left-hand-drive variants.
Despite the recent declines, the brand already expects that the UK’s June registration figures will see year-on-year rises for Tesla as the new Model Y begins to filter through, and there are early signs that this could already be occurring in other countries. Despite Tesla previously losing EV market share in Norway, the most recent May results for the country show a significant rebound for Tesla. Tesla emerged as the top-selling brand across both EV and ICE, with monthly sales in May rising 213% year-on-year for the brand, assisted by the arrival of the latest Model Y, according to the Norwegian Road Federation.
Whilst previous sales declines have been partially blamed on reduced brand reputation for Tesla, Norwegian Road Federation director Solberg Thorsen believes that so-called ‘Tesla shame’ may be on the way out, adding (translated):
“What seems to apply now is the following: If you think the car is nice, the price is good, and you get what you want in terms of space, equipment and range, then those are the things that drive the choice. Loyalty to brand and model is no longer very important for most people.”
With that in mind, and production of the facelifted Model Y now ramping up across Europe, we’ll soon be finding out whether that Norwegian sales rebound soon rings true in other countries such as the United Kingdom.
