Sales of Tesla vehicles slipped as much as 12% in January despite it being the best month on record for the EV market in the UK, fresh data has found.
A total of 1,416 Teslas were registered in January, a drop of 188 compared to the same time last year, according to figures by New Automotive, despite a 35% overall rise in sales of battery electric vehicles in the UK to 27,677.
While Tesla saw a 12% sales fall, sales of VW battery electric cars more than doubled to just under 2,000 and Peugeot EV registrations doubled to 1,631.
The change in fortunes for Tesla means the carmaker has slipped down the rankings to 7th in the top-10 most popular EV brands in the UK, New Automotive figures show, with a drop in its market share from 7.8% to 5.1%. Meanwhile, VW climbed to second place with a three percentage point rise in market share to 7.2%, and Peugeot’s share rose 1.9% to 5.9%.
“UK electric car sales had their strongest start to the year on record, with over one in five new cars being fully electric in January,” New Automotive said.
“January is typically a weak month for electric car sales, yet carmakers notched up EV sales that were only few percentage points below the levels required to comply with the UK’s electric car sales targets to 2025.
“New models priced more competitively and with better batteries — the result of billions in investment by manufacturers — are behind the 34% rise in EV sales in January. Nine of the top sellers of EVs in the UK are ‘legacy’ carmakers who are transforming from ICE production, showing how incumbent carmakers are leading the charge and driving forward this trend.”
The drop in sales for Tesla follows a similar pattern to data that has already been reported for several other European countries for January.
The trend is thought to be a reaction to Tesla boss Elon Musk’s foray into politics, in which he became an ally and one of the biggest donors to the election campaign of Donald Trump.
Billionaire Musk recently mounted a series of attacks on the Labour government in the UK, going as far to accuse minister Jess Philips of being a “rape genocide apologist.”
PM Keir Starmer has since hit back at Elon Musk, attacking him for “lies and misinformation”.
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