In Germany, sales have fallen by over 40%, and now the trend may deepen: German companies are refusing to cooperate with Elon Musk's company "Tesla", private individuals are also participating in the boycott. What caused it?
„I bought this car before Musk went crazy." Designer from the city of Pforzheim, Patrick Schneider, has stuck a sticker with this content on his Tesla electric car. He decided to put it up after he had been witnessing disapproving looks and comments from other people more and more often lately.
In Germany, they are already ashamed to drive a Tesla
During this time, Tesla owner Elon Musk was increasingly actively participating in Donald Trump's election campaign, and Patrick Schneider decided to emphasize that he liked driving the iconic electric car, but that he did not share the political views of the head of the American corporation at all.
Since Elon Musk started campaigning in Germany, supporting the right-wing populist and somewhat right-wing extremist party “Alternative for Germany” (AfD), more and more Tesla owners in Germany feel the need to distance themselves from the American entrepreneur. That's why they buy Patrick Schneider's stickers - they cost 7.50 euros, an average of 100-120 orders are received daily, mainly from Germany, but also from other countries.
The story of this successful small business, told by the weekly magazine “Der Spiegel”, clearly illustrates the growing image problems of the big business that Elon Musk is involved in in Germany. His only car factory in Europe is in the Federal Republic. It was built in 2022 in Grünheide, not far from Berlin, mainly with the idea of satisfying the German car market - the largest in Europe.
After that, however, the politician Musk began to increasingly harm the entrepreneur Musk, particularly in Germany. It all started with the X platform, from which a number of large German clients - universities and scientific societies, football clubs and government agencies - left en masse. They all closed their accounts on the platform, accusing it of algorithmically amplifying populist content of a far-right nature.
Sales in Germany drop by 41 percent
Now Musk's persistent advertising for the AfD, which is associated with neo-Nazi circles and traditionally hostile to all types of electric vehicles, is turning into anti-advertising for the world's largest (so far) electric car manufacturer. And all this is happening at a time when Tesla's sales in Germany already fell last year - by 41 percent to 37,574 units.
Demand for electric cars is falling overall - mainly because at the end of 2023, for budgetary reasons, the German government unexpectedly canceled subsidies for electric cars. But the market for these vehicles in Germany in 2024 decreased “only" by 27.4 percent, respectively, demand for Tesla has fallen much more than demand for other types of electric vehicles.
At this point, there is still no question of a connection with politics - to a much greater extent, the decline could be explained by the new models of competitors and the gradual obsolescence of Tesla's Model Y and Model 3 models. And the Rossmann drugstore chain, which has over 2,000 stores in Germany and over 4,000 in total in Europe, announced last summer that it would no longer buy Tesla for its business needs.
At that time, Rossmann was rather an isolated case. But in recent weeks, the list of German corporate clients that are abandoning further cooperation with Elon Musk's company has begun to grow quite rapidly.
Which German companies are abandoning Tesla?
Among them are the energy companies Badenova and Lichtblick, specializing in the exploitation of renewable sources. For them, the purchase of Tesla electric cars for their employees was a landmark event, emphasizing their attachment to the “green transition”. That is, they chose Tesla not for commercial, but for ideological reasons.
Therefore, their abandonment of this brand is definitely of a political nature. Referring to Elon Musk's repeated election campaigning in favor of the AfD, the Hamburg company Lichtblick announced that it would wait out the term of the current leasing contracts and would not conclude any more in the future with this manufacturer. Currently, Lichtblick's fleet consists of several dozen cars, half of which are Teslas.
The decision of the Badenova company from Freiburg was also influenced by Elon Musk's agreement to accept a position in the administration of Donald Trump, who threatened Germany with the introduction of tax barriers for the import of German cars and other goods, which would cause serious damage to the German economy. Badenova also does not intend to conclude new lease agreements for Tesla cars after the current ones expire. In addition, the company has closed its account on the X platform.
The construction company Vierbrockhaus from the city of Harsefeld has also abandoned Tesla production, whose boss Lars Fibrok recognizes the past merits of Elon Musk, who "revolutionized the field of electromobility in Germany". Now, however, he says that Musk's political views no longer correspond to the company's values.
Will 2025 be the year of the boycott of Musk's company?
If the boycott of Tesla in Germany is limited to these and some other relatively small companies, the financial damage to the manufacturer is unlikely to be particularly painful. But it will be completely different if the rejection of the brand takes on a mass character in German business circles.
On the German market, two-thirds of new passenger cars are registered by legal entities, which take many of the machines on lease, and after the lease expires, new contracts are usually concluded with the same manufacturer. In Germany, leasing is also widespread among private owners, mainly for three years, i.e. Many contracts signed recently after the Grünheide plant was put into operation will expire this year.
A recent survey commissioned by the automotive magazine Automobilwoche shows that 65 percent of those surveyed would not buy or lease a Tesla car because of Musk's political statements. In other words, the story of the boycott of this brand in Germany is just beginning.