Tesla, Trump and tumbling sales: what’s going on with Musk’s EV brand?

Elon Musk acknowledged in Tesla’s most recent earnings call that revenues are down for the first time in over a decade – with experts blaming the EV giant’s drop in sales on the CEO’s own “toxicity”.

In Q1 of 2025, automotive earnings fell by as much as 20 per cent compared to last year, with overall profits down nine per cent, making the situation far more dire than many analysts were expecting. his mirrors a 13 per cent drop in sales so far this year and follows on from an overall dip in 2024, with the number of new Tesla models registered falling to 1.79 million from 1.81 million in 2023.

Yet it’s a rather different story here in the UK; in the first quarter of 2025, Tesla registered 12,500 new vehicles, which is an increase over the 11,786 registered for the same period in 2024. Of course, we expect this to dip slightly over the next couple of months as the old Model Y goes out of production and the facelifted examples begin trickling in at the beginning of May, before arriving en masse in June. 

We asked Tesla UK to confirm these timelines and while the brand refused to comment officially, it did indicate that our assessment was accurate.

In the recent earnings call, however, Tesla blamed the dip in global profits on slow deliveries, and stated that it would continue to streamline the production process – particularly for more bespoke models (i.e those ordered without the base colour, wheels etc.).

Despite this, Musk appealed to investors, claiming that the firm isn’t “on the ragged edge of death, not even close. But there are some challenges, and I expect that this year… there will probably be some unexpected bumps. But I remain extremely optimistic about the future of the company.”

Tesla’s dip in worldwide sales cannot simply solely be attributed to sluggish deliveries; EV demand, while growing, is not accelerating at the pace that was expected a few years ago. In addition, there’s now a slew of rivals available to buyers, offering similar levels of technology and range, which were once some of the firm’s key differentiators.

Then, of course, there’s the crater of controversy surrounding Musk himself; speaking to Auto Express, Professor of Business Economics at the University of Birmingham, David Bailey, said: “Tesla is getting a hammering, largely due to the toxicity of Elon Musk, but also the fact that the competition has heated up, especially from China and the likes of BYD.”

This is something that even Musk himself admitted during the earnings call, stating that: “As some people know, there’s been some blowback for the time that I’ve been spending in government with the Department of Government Efficiency. I think the work that we’re doing there is actually very important for trying to rein in the insane deficit that is leading our country to destruction.”

Recently, Musk appeared on the White House lawn with none other than President Donald Trump after the latter posted on social media that he was going to “buy a Tesla as a show of confidence in Elon Musk” – something that undoubtedly alienated many Democrat voters, or anyone with opposing views to Trump.

Of course, not all of Musk and Trump’s views align; the President’s hefty tariffs placed on China will already be having a significant impact on Tesla’s operations. While Tesla assembles all US-bought cars within the country itself, it imports a large proportion of the components, which are currently subject to a 25 per cent tariff.

Musk told investors during the earnings call: “I’ve been on the record many times saying that I believe lower tariffs are generally a good idea for prosperity, but this decision is fundamentally up to the President of the United States. So, you know, I’ll continue to advocate for lower tariffs rather than higher tariffs, but that’s all I can do.”

In fact, Musk appears to be so aware of how his political actions may be impacting the success of the electric car firm, he confirmed in the call that “starting next month, May, my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly. I’ll have to continue doing it for the remainder of the President’s term… but starting next month, I’ll be allocating more of my time to Tesla”.

Nevertheless, Bailey believes that a recovery for Tesla “requires Musk’s departure” altogether, despite the CEO’s enigmatic personality being one of the main factors that drew buyers to the brand in the first place. He continued: “A recovery is possible by focusing on getting [another] mass market car to market and, like the CEO of Ryanair once said, by ‘trying not to p**s our customers off so much’.”

Ultimately, it’s unfair to pin the entirety of Tesla’s recent losses on Musk himself – there are several other factors preventing the firm from extending its EV lead. That said, Tesla is putting huge emphasis on the launch of its autonomous ride-hailing service in Austin, Texas, in June of this year. This will see Model Ys deployed initially, before the Cybercab robotaxi enters production in 2026.

Whether this will be able to stimulate interest and optimism in the Tesla brand is another question altogether. However, Musk himself predicts that there will be “millions of Teslas operating [fully] autonomously in the second half of next year”.

Making the switch? These are the best electric cars...