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Tesla has rolled out a number of new models recently in order to try to stimulate demand again and revive its growth. In China, it rolled out the Model Y L. And lest we forget, it was not that long ago that Tesla rolled out the upgraded Model Y everywhere. More recently, Tesla released its new, cheaper, de-contented Model 3 and Model Y. The latter are too new to show up on sales charts, since they were just released, but one would think that Tesla expected to have the upgraded versions of the Model Y revive growth to some extent.
However, that’s currently not the case in two key Tesla markets.
Tesla in China
Chinese EV sales numbers for September are out, and Tesla sales have declined again (in a strongly growing BEV market, up 28.5% year over year). It’s not a big hit, but the company delivered 71,525 vehicles in September 2025 compared to 72,200 vehicles in September 2024, a drop of about 0.9%. That is also the 7th month out of 9 in 2025 that Tesla’s year-over-year deliveries declined in China, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). In the two previous quarter-end months (March and June), Tesla’s sales were up. But even this quarter-end month didn’t bring a sales increase.
Overall, Tesla’s deliveries in China totaled 169,294 in the 3rd quarter, down 6.9% from the 3rd quarter of 2024. That’s not a good sign, but I guess the positive trend one could possibly take is that the situation improved in the last month of the quarter. Across the first three quarters of the year, Tesla’s sales in China were down 6% year over year, though, so in that light, things were worse in the 3rd quarter! Considering that Tesla’s China sales accounted for 34% of its vehicle business in the 3rd quarter, these declines are concerning, especially on the back of model upgrades and an important new model option.
Tesla in Europe
We don’t have full European data yet, but after seeing the situation in China, I decided to have a peek at how things are going for Tesla in several European markets. Looking at the composite data across 13 European markets, Tesla sales dropped from 34,752 in September 2024 (20.8% market share) to 29,212 in September 2025 (14.5% market share).
That’s a 16% drop in Tesla’s sales across those 13 countries. The markets that covers include the UK, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, and Sweden.
On the plus side, perhaps, the new, cheaper version of the Model Y just launched in Europe at a significant price cut. Also, unlike the US, it’s not fighting against the consumer demand trends coming from a major EV subsidy just being removed. So, one would expect the new option to give Tesla a sales a boost in Europe.
Europe is Tesla’s third largest market, of course, and still critical to Tesla’s sales trends. So, recent trends are not a good sign, and the cheaper version of the Model Y is going to have to sell very well to bring Tesla growth back to Europe.
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