By Alessandro Parodi
Jan 2 (Reuters) – Tesla registrations fell in some European markets in December, as the U.S. automaker’s market share in the region shrank in 2025, but they hit record levels in Norway, which has been at the forefront of EV adoption.
Sales of Elon Musk’s EV brand have slowed in Europe since late 2024 as competition has intensified, its lineup has aged and Musk’s praise of European right-wing political figures has drawn public protests.
DROP IN FOURTH-QUARTER DELIVERY NUMBERS
The brand also reported a sharper-than-expected drop in global fourth-quarter delivery numbers on Friday, sending shares down 1.5% around 1730 GMT.
Despite the launch of cheaper versions of Tesla’s Model Y and Model 3 across Europe, its business has not yet recovered.
In France, Europe’s third-biggest car market after Germany and Britain, Tesla registrations – a proxy for sales – slumped 66% last month to 1,942 vehicles, data from French car body PFA showed on Thursday.
Registrations fell 37% in France in 2025 as a whole.
In Sweden, Tesla registrations fell 71% to 821 vehicles in December, leading to a 70% drop in 2025, according to Mobility Sweden.
They also dropped in Portugal, Spain and Belgium, by 13% to 1,207 cars, 44% to 1,794 and 28% to 1,084 respectively, official data showed. For 2025 as a whole, sales fell 22% in Portugal, 4% in Spain and 53% in Belgium.
Tesla registrations in Italy and Switzerland were up 85% to 2,519 cars and 76% to 1,570 in December, respectively, but fell 18% and 28% overall in 2025.
NEARLY ALL NORWEGIAN NEW CARS ARE ELECTRIC
In Norway, Tesla registrations jumped 89% in December from a year earlier to 5,679 vehicles, registration data showed.
The brand had a market share of over 19% in the country in 2025, setting a new annual sales record and benefiting from almost all of Norway’s new car sales being electric.
Up to November, Tesla’s market share across Europe, Britain and the European Free Trade Association was down to 1.7% from 2.4% in the same period of 2024, even as total battery-electric sales reached 18.8% of the market, European auto lobby ACEA said.
The ACEA will release full-year sales data for Europe later in January. In the eight countries that reported on Friday, together accounting for over half of Tesla’s market in Europe, registrations dropped in total by around 25% in 2025.
(Reporting by Alessandro Parodi, Marie Mannes and Javi West Larrañaga, editing by Terje Solsvik, Susan Fenton and Barbara Lewis)
