In the U.S., Tesla has seen California registrations for its new cars topple 16 percent in April and 70 percent in May compared to a year earlier.
Industry-wide car registrations in the state were down 52 percent over the same period.
Across 24 states tracked by research firm Dominion Enterprises, registrations of new Teslas were down 33 percent, compared to the broader industry’s 43 percent drop.
In the Netherlands, Tesla’s third-largest market after China and the U.S., registrations fell 57 percent during April and the first half of May. Deliveries there could be off 31 percent by the end of the quarter, some analysts say.
Tesla faces stiffer competition from gas buggies now that gas prices have dropped to around $2 a gallon in the U.S. and Detroit is offering buyers incentives of $5,000 or more.
Acknowledging its sagging sales, Tesla cut prices by $2,000 to $5,000 on 27 May.
The company reported record sales in China last month, helping to propel Tesla’s share price to a record $1,013 on 16 June.
In April, new auto sales across the European Union (EU) fell 76 percent below their total in April 2019.
The sales collapse was worst in Italy, where sales were off 97.6 percent. U.K. sales tumbled 97.3 percent and Spain’s were down 96.5 percent. New car purchases dropped 88.8 percent in France and 61.1 percent in Germany, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.
Now European auto plants have started making vehicles again, sending more inventory into car dealers’ lots already crammed with unsold cars.
The number of unsold cars on dealers’ hands is almost a third more than usual, some analysts calculate; German dealers alone are sitting on about $17 billion worth of cars.
France and Germany are trying to boost sales by offering billions of euros’ worth of government incentives. Germany’s incentives, as well as its manufacturing, are focusing on electric vehicles, which currently do not suffer from an inventory glut in Europe.
Auto industry executives and analysts fear that Germany’s concentration on EVs is aggravating the glut of internal combustion vehicles clogging dealers’ showrooms.
Electric vehicles made up only 7 percent of European car sales during 2020’s first quarter.
The EU’s auto industry is taking what hope it can from May sales figures, which show the year-on-year decline slowing to 57 percent, compared to April’s 76-percent fall.
It also finds encouragement in China, where new car sales rose 6 percent in May. Analysts also see signs that the U.S. car market is gaining strength.
TREND FORECAST: As we have been reporting in the Trends Journal since last year, car sales in China, India, and Europe were already in steep decline.
And, as we had forecast since politicians began the global lockdown in March, auto sales, while rebounding to some extent, will continue to decline during the Greatest Depression as wages sink and unemployment grows.
