China is ???? ???? ????????officially eating Elon Musk's lunch in Europe.
Market research firm JATO Dynamics said in a report on Thursday (via Reuters) that Tesla fell behind Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer BYD in EV sales in Europe in April. The lead isn't a huge one, per Reuters; BYD sold 7,231 EVs, while Tesla sold 7,165 vehicles.
That said, this is apparently the first time this has happened, and it could potentially mark a turn in the global EV market away from Tesla and toward alternative manufacturers like BYD.
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Another factor that makes this impressive is that BYD's vehicles haven't been widely available in Europe for all that long, while Tesla has been a household name in the EV space for many years. JATO Dynamics analyst Felipe Munoz, quoted by Reuters, noted that BYD didn't expand outside of Norway and the Netherlands until late 2022.
While there are likely several factors at play here, it seems that Musk's recent turn as a mascot for the Trump administration has soured some customers on the prospect of Tesla ownership. A report last month indicated that used Teslas are flooding the market in record numbers, while Tesla sales cratered in Germany in April, falling pretty far behind BYD.