Tesla EU sales plunge 40% in July as anger at Musk drives 7th monthly drop

Europeans angry at Elon Musk still aren't buying his cars months after the billionaire predicted a major rebound in Tesla sales, data released Thursday shows.

Tesla sales plunged 40 per cent in July in the 27 European Union countries compared with the year earlier even as sales overall of electric vehicle soared, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association. Meanwhile sales of Chinese rival BYD continued to climb fast, grabbing 1.1 per cent market share of all car sales in the month versus Tesla's 0.7 per cent.

Tesla stock fell 1.5 per cent in afternoon trading Thursday.

Musk angered many Europeans by wading into politics there, embracing far-right candidates, calling a British prime minister an evil tyrant who belongs in prison and telling Germans things will get very, very much worse in their country if they didn't vote for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party. Protests broke out in several cities, including a hanging of the billionaire in effigy in Milan and posters in London likening him to a Nazi.

The company has several other problems that have contributed its plunging sales.

The company is still awaiting European regulatory approval to allow Tesla owners there to use its most advanced driver-assistance features available in the US, a big appeal to buyers. Musk had predicted approval of its so-called Full-Self Driving software was going to happen by March of this year.

Another hit came from Tesla's decision to close down factories temporarily earlier this year to retool for a new version of its best selling Model Y sport utility vehicle

The company is hoping the introduction of cheaper Teslas in the last three months of this year will boost sales.

Overall, the company sold 6,600 cars in July in the EU versus 11,465 a year ago. The plunge came despite a 39 per cent surge in battery electric vehicle sales overall.

For the first seven months of the year, Tesla sales have fallen 44 per cent. For that entire period, as opposed to just July, Tesla was still the EV market leader. It accounted for 1.1 per cent of European sales of all types - battery, hybrid and gas powered - versus 0.9 per cent for BYD.