Tesla Sales Plummet in Australia, But is Elon Musk Really To Blame?

It’s been a tough few months for Elon Musk’s fabled car company as Tesla sales have continued to struggle against mounting competition from Chinese-owned brands. At the same time, Musk’s close relationship with US President Donald Trump has done nothing to help the company by aligning it with the wrong side of right-wing politics. Even locally, there have even been issues. The company’s local arm was served a class action lawsuit in late February by JGA Saddler which alleges the cars are prone to ‘phantom braking’, have poor battery range, and have a lack of autonomous driving capabilities.

Still, despite all of this, Tesla retained its crown as the top-selling EV brand in Australia last year with 38,347 sales across their two model line-up helping them maintain a large 42% market share despite a 16.9% overall sales decrease. This month, they’ve done the same with the 1,592 sales across the two model line-up firmly holding the lead in a weakening EV market.

Even with struggling sales, the brand will likely remain the top seller Downunder as threatening brands like BYD and Leapmotor hedge their bets with plug-in hybrid cars like the BYD Shark 6 and Leapmotor C10 REEV. Moreover, the sheer volume of new market entrants (Deepal, Leap Motor, Zeekr, XPeng, Geely, etc.) will increase competition in the short term, but we don’t expect many of these brands to be volume sellers out of the gate. Now, let’s take a closer look at Tesla’s Australian sales in detail.

Tesla’s Sales Decline in Australia by the Numbers

The interactive chart above shows Tesla sales in Australia for each month since January 2023. It demonstrates how far they have fallen since sales peaked in June two years ago (7,018 sales).

January of this year was the toughest month for the brand with 739 sales, but that’s typical of car manufacturers as they prefer to fill order books towards the back end of the year and bolster their December results.

Still, February sales for Tesla, which were revealed by the EVC this week, also haven’t been so kind with the 1,592 vehicles sold being the third lowest in several years and representing a year-on-year decrease of 71.90% (1,592 vs 5,665).

Here’s a model breakdown for Tesla sales in February 2025 vs. February 2024:

• Tesla Model 3: 668 vs. 3593 (-81.41%)
• Tesla Model Y: 924 vs. 2,072 (-55.41%)

What needs to be mentioned again is that these sales, while declining significantly, are still the highest of all battery electric vehicles in Australia. Their biggest competition, BYD, managed just over 150 sales of it’s highly-anticipated SEALION 7 SUV.

Here’s how the EV-only brands fared in February 2025:

• Tesla: 1,592
• Polestar: 125
• Zeekr: 99
• Leapmotor: 29

Several of the new Chinese EV brands are yet to list their sales figures with VFACTS or the EVC.

Is Elon Musk’s Trump Endorsement a Dealbreaker?

It’s still too early to say what effect it’s having on car sales, but when the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, announced his support for Donald Trump in the lead up to the presidential election, we’re not sure how many people saw this relationship unfolding into what we have today. When Elon Musk writes “I love @realDonaldTrump as much as a straight man can love another man,” questions have to be asked.

While we believe that there are simply too many factors at play here to determine the extent to which Elon Musks relationship with Donald Trump is hurting sales, recent events have forced analysts to have a close look at the brand.

The first event is the Tesla share price, which has continued to nose-dive at an alarming rate. It’s fallen USD$120.17 (-30.64%) in the past month, and most fingers point at the brands sales which have weakened substantially in Australia, but more importantly, in the world’s biggest car market, China. The closest competitor to Tesla in China, BYD, sold more than 318,000 pure electric and hybrid passenger vehicles in February (+161% per cent) so there’s no real argument to be made that people’s shrinking appetite for EVs has slowed sales. There’s something else at play here.

Then, there’s the protests against Elon Musk and Tesla. Recently, Reuters reported that nine people were arrested during a “raucous demonstration” outside of a New York City Tesla dealership that “involved hundreds of people,” as part of several “Tesla Takedown” demonstrations staged across America. No matter someones political stance, where not sure who would want to be seen driving a car that is the automotive equivalent of a MAGA hat with wheels.

Bumper stickers with “Anti Elon Tesla Club,” and “I Bought This Before Elon Went Crazy,” have become big business for small-time entrepreneurs. Hawaii-based aquarium worker called Matt Hiller, told The Guardian in November 2024, that he’s selling several hundred stickers a day to Tesla owners. “People keep telling me that they feel they can drive their Teslas again with these stickers,” he said in the article.

Finally, a UK activist group called ‘Everyone Hates Elon’ has dubbed Tesla “The Swasticar” in an out of home advertisement that has garnered millions of views on social media.

What’s Next for Tesla in Australia?

We’re yet to see any of these protest in Australia, and we haven’t even spotted a bumper sticker, but with the rise in competition amongst electric vehicle brands out of of China the road ahead will be tough for Tesla in Australia.

Where Elon Musks involvement in this sales decline sits is yet to be determined, but they do have one trick up their sleeve with the recently announced Model Y SUV. It’s due in Australia imminently, and boasts features new and carried over features from the updated Model 3 sedan released last year.

When this car is released, we will have our best look yet at the Elon effect. It needs to sell, and maybe Tesla dealerships should start selling some of these bumper stickers to bolster sales.