London — Sales data show many Europeans, seemingly angry with Elon Musk as he navigates his close relationship with President Trump to influence U.S. policy, may be choosing to steer clear of Tesla vehicles. A sharp decline in sales comes as anti-Musk ads appear in the U.K. and other countries alluding a comparison to Adolf Hitler. 

Tesla new vehicle sales fell across the continent by nearly half in January, plunging by 45% year-on-year, according to data compiled by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA). In hard numbers, Tesla sold just under 9,950 vehicles in Europe in January. For the same month in 2024, the company sold just over 18,100 new vehicles. 

The drop in sales has hurt Tesla’s share price, which had nearly doubled in the first month after Mr. Trump’s election victory to a record high. Most of those gains have since been lost, and Tesla’s market cap has plunged below the $1 trillion mark. The stock, which as of early Wednesday traded for roughly $305 in the U.S., remains up 54% over the last 12 months, buoyed by the company’s ambitious plans for self-driving cars and humanoid robots.

In Germany, Tesla sales fell nearly 60% in January year-on-year as would-be buyers voted with their wallets — possibly angered by Musk’s purported meddling in the country’s federal elections last weekend, which saw the far-right AfD party he backed become the country’s second most popular.

In France, Tesla’s sales in January fell 63%. The plunge came after Musk backed far-right parties in that country and attacked left-leaning ones, although the impact of his political activities on Tesla’s financial performance is hard to gauge and could reflect other factors, such as mounting competition from other EV makers.

Tesla sales in the U.S. have also been declining, falling 1% in 2024 compared to the prior year — the automaker’s first annual sales decline in 12 years despite global EV sales rising 7.3%. As CBS News’ MoneyWatch reported this week, Wall Street analysts have said Musk’s political activities could alienate consumers previously loyal to the brand, and protests have erupted at a number of Tesla dealerships in the U.S.

“Musk’s DOGE related actions and more powerful alliance with Trump clearly could alienate some consumers to move away from the Tesla brand,” analysts for the U.S. financial services firm Wedbush wrote in a Tuesday company report on the automaker. “There is some momentum around this effort in Europe and pockets of the U.S. as well since November. That said, we view this as containable brand issues for Tesla for now that are not a major cause for concern.”

A similar trend has been seen in Europe. While Tesla’s European sales numbers plunged in January, ACEA data show sales of electric vehicles overall surged by 34%, with buyers increasingly eyeing options from China and the continent’s own automakers.

In the U.K., after Musk attacked Prime Minister Keir Starmer and called for the release of a jailed far-right activist, January sales fell a comparatively gentler 12% year-on-year, but anger at Musk has been visible on British roadsides after an activist group called “Everybody Hates Elon” pasted over bus stop ads with posters showing Musk making a hand gesture that strongly resembled a Nazi salute at one of Mr. Trump’s inauguration events. 

Musk has neither admitted nor denied his intent with the gesture, but he mocked the criticism of it, saying in a message on his social media platform X that, “the ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”

On the protest group’s posters, the words “0 to 1939 in three seconds” appear above the image of Musk, alluding to the start of World War II.

Ramy Inocencio

Ramy Inocencio is a CBS News foreign correspondent based in London, covering Europe and the Middle East. He joined the Network in 2019 as CBS News’ Asia correspondent, based in Beijing and reporting across the Asia-Pacific, bringing two decades of experience working and traveling between Asia and the United States.