In January of this year, Tesla’s electric vehicle sales in Germany saw a significant surge, defying expectations of a general decline in EV sales due to a reduction in environmental incentives. While the overall market saw a dip, Tesla’s new vehicle registrations increased by over 900 percent compared to the same month in 2022. However, this promising start to the year seems to have hit a snag as Tesla’s market share in Germany dipped to just 8 percent in April, landing the company in third place for EV models.
The latest figures from the German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) revealed that although Tesla’s new registrations increased by 270 percent compared to the previous year, these yearly comparisons are losing their significance due to the production of Model Y in the German Gigafactory. Previously, there was a pattern of Tesla registrations peaking at the end of each quarter as most Model 3 and Model Y vehicles arrived in Europe from China.
However, the unexpectedly strong January performance seemed to break this pattern, with Tesla’s new registrations remaining at a high level in February. In March, however, Tesla’s growth rate was just over 8 percent compared to the previous year, while the overall EV market grew by 28 percent. And in April, only half as many Teslas were registered in Germany as in January, with the figure dropping to a third of the number registered in February.
This decline also affected individual models, as revealed in KBA’s latest figures. The Model Y, which had held the top spot in Germany’s EV market since January, was displaced in April by the Volkswagen ID.4 and its coupe variant, the ID.5, with a combined total of 2,723 new registrations. Even the Volkswagen ID.3 surpassed the Model Y, with 2,050 new registrations compared to the Model Y’s 1,636.
The Tesla Model 3, which is produced only in China for the European market, did not even make it to the top ten EV models in Germany, with just 588 new registrations in April. However, after occupying the second spot behind the Model Y for the entire year in 2022, the Model 3 has now slipped to fifth place after four months in 2023, behind two other EVs from the Volkswagen Group, the Audi Q4 e-tron and Skoda Enyaq.
Despite the weak performance in April, the Model Y retains its position as the best-selling EV in Germany, with a total of 17,487 new registrations, followed by the ID.4/ID.5 with 9,505 new registrations.