Tesla Logs Nearly Twofold Increase in European Monthly Sales
TSLA
Published on 04/23/2026 at 12:15 am EDT
By Mauro Orru
Tesla's sales in Europe nearly doubled in March, a sign that Elon Musk's electric-vehicle maker is regaining momentum in the region after a slump that stretched more than a year.
New-car registrations for Tesla models, a reflection of sales, grew more than 84% on year last month to 52,600 units across the European Union, the U.K., Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association, an industry body also known as ACEA. In the EU alone, sales more than doubled from a year earlier to 36,868 vehicles.
The company faced a challenging 2025 marked by customer backlash due to Musk's involvement with the Trump administration while he oversaw the Department of Government Efficiency as well as intense competition from Chinese auto giant BYD that gained market share in Europe.
However, the latest ACEA data show that Tesla's sales in the region are not only bouncing back, but also gaining momentum as March figures point to a stark improvement from growth of nearly 12% across Europe recorded in February, the first month of higher new-car registrations for Tesla since December 2024.
Earlier this month, the Netherlands became the first country in the EU to approve Tesla's full self-driving supervised system that helps drivers change lanes and navigate around other vehicles and objects while they remain in control as the software doesn't make vehicles fully autonomous.
The Netherlands Vehicle Authority, or RDW, said the system had been tested for more than one and a half years and that using it correctly makes a positive contribution to road safety. The agency said it would submit an application to roll out the system across the whole of the EU.
A spokesperson for the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said that if the evidence from test results is satisfactory and if there is support from a majority of member states, legislation would be prepared authorizing the Netherlands to grant an approval that would pave the way for an EU-wide rollout of Tesla's full self-driving supervised system.
The company sold more vehicles in Europe than its Chinese rival BYD, whose sales in the region have surged every month since ACEA began including the company in its data last summer. BYD's new-car registrations in Europe more than doubled last month to 37,580 units, according to ACEA data.
The market for battery-electric vehicles in Europe grew nearly 42% last month. Registrations of hybrid-electric cars increased more than 15%, while plug-in-hybrid models logged growth of nearly 32%.
ACEA said monthly passenger-car registrations increased 11% in Europe as a whole and 12.5% in the EU, with sales up 16% in Germany, 13% in France and 7.6% in Italy.
Write to Mauro Orru at [email protected]
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-23-26 0014ET