Tesla sales drop in Sweden, Denmark and France for seventh straight month
Tesla's aging lineup is facing a wave of low cost EV rivals, specially from China. It is rolling out a revamped Model Y and starting to produce a new, cheaper model, but production of that will only ramp up next quarter, later than initially expected.
The brand's sales were down 86% year-on-year in July to 163 cars in Sweden, 52% to 336 cars in Denmark and 27% to 1,307 cars in France, official industry data showed, after dropping by more than a third in Europe in the first six months of the year.
With no more affordable end vehicles on the horizon until the last three months of the year and the upcoming end of a $7,500 (R136,940) US tax break for EV buyers, Musk acknowledged in July that Tesla could have "a few rough quarters".
He said tough automated driving regulations in Europe made it harder to sell the Model Y in some countries as the vehicle's optional supervised self-driving is "a huge selling point".
"Our sales in Europe we think will improve significantly once we are able to give customers the same experience they have in the UD" he told analysts.
Model Y registrations in Sweden and Denmark fell by 88% and 49% respectively in July.
In June Tesla launched a trial robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, using about a dozen Model Y SUVs controlled by its autonomous-driving software. However, the roll-out of its self-driving features elsewhere in the US is bogged down because it hasn't received the required permits.
Overall car sales slid 8% in France and were up 20% in Denmark and 6% in Sweden in July, the industry data showed.
Other European countries, including Italy, Norway and Spain, are expected to release July car sales data later on Friday.
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