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Europe's EV sales surge 26% in 2025 while Tesla faces decline

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65 points doener | 1 comments | 23 Sep 25 10:42 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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rmu09 ◴[23 Sep 25 11:57 UTC] No.45345721[source]▶
US made cars had the reputation of being low quality, too big, too heavy and too inefficient for european cities.

Tesla was somewhat different. People bought Teslas not for their promised "self driving" capabilities (I know no Tesla driver that took those promises at face value or got the FSD option FWIW), but one motivation was to "stick it" to snobbish arrogant european manufacturers wanting to develop "clean" ICEs with "green fuels" or other non-sensical crimes against thermodynamics like H2-cars.

Now, Tesla (and the US in general) has a brand toxicity problem, and it is worsening. People I know that would consider a Tesla some years ago now drive electric VWs or BWMs or KIAs, often times much more expensive cars than the comparable Tesla 3 / Y model.

This trend will probably continue the next years, and I don't see a way for Tesla to repair the brand image.

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prmoustache ◴[23 Sep 25 12:14 UTC] No.45345908[source]▶
> US made cars had the reputation of being low quality, too big, too heavy and too inefficient for european cities. Tesla was somewhat different.

How so? Tesla doesn't produce a compact car by any european standard. Their smallest car, the Model 3, is the same size of a VW Caddy, an utilitary/7s seat Family VAN, bigger than a more refined VW Touran, another 7 seater family van or the popular VW Tiguan, a large (by euro standards) SUV.

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rmu09 ◴[23 Sep 25 12:53 UTC] No.45346355[source]▶
Tesla Model 3 is typical middle class sedan size IMHO, like VW Passat, Audi A4, BWM 3, i.e. one size up from VW Golf/Tiguan/Touran.

Tesla was different because it was no gas-guzzling V8 behemoth that takes at least 20l/100km like what you used to associate with "US cars".

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prmoustache ◴[23 Sep 25 13:06 UTC] No.45346492[source]▶
> typical middle class sedan size IMHO, like VW Passat, Audi A4, BWM 3, i.e. one size up from VW Golf/Tiguan/Touran.

Which have inflated one size/class bigger than they used to 25 years ago.

The people who now drive these kind of cars today used to drive A6, BMW 5 series and E-Class Mercedes Benz. Cars lass/segments have slided both in size and luxury over a few decades.

If you look at car sales number you will see that the cars that sell the most are in the small and compact segment categories. Here is the top10 in Q1 in Europe:

Rank Model Units Sold Manufacturer Segment

1 Dacia Sandero 42,913 Renault Group Supermini

2 Citroën C3 34,064 Stellantis Subcompact

3 Peugeot 208 33,821 Stellantis Supermini

4 Volkswagen Golf 33,663 Volkswagen Group Compact

5 Renault Clio 31,754 Renault Group Supermini

6 Dacia Duster 31,217 Renault Group Compact SUV

7 Volkswagen T-Roc 30,949 Volkswagen Group Crossover

8 Volkswagen Tiguan 29,733 Volkswagen Group SUV

9 Toyota Yaris Cross 29,226 Toyota Motor Europe Crossover SUV

10 Peugeot 2008 28,072 Stellantis Subcompact SUV

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rmu09 ◴[23 Sep 25 13:48 UTC] No.45347000[source]▶
I agree that a small / compact car is missing in the Tesla line-up and that also hurts their european performance (and will continue to hurt).
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dzhiurgis ◴[24 Sep 25 01:00 UTC] No.45354936[source]▶
Do you know small cars that are not utter shite?

If Tesla hypothetically made a small car, which model it should compete against?

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1. rmu09 ◴[24 Sep 25 16:11 UTC] No.45362385[source]▶
The BMW i3 was an interesting car, it's a pity they cancelled it and don't offer it with current drive train / battery. There are 3rd party battery upgrades available though if you get a used one.