This is why sales of Tesla cars are dropping everywhere in Europe, except in Norway
A tax incentive is pushing more Norwegian motorists to switch to electric vehicles and Tesla is seeing a significant boost.
European motorists are turning against Tesla, registration figures from 2025 suggest, but there is one country that is bucking the downward trend.
Registrations of Tesla cars have fallen significantly across the continent in November 2025, as compared to the same month in the previous year. France has seen a 58% fall, Sweden is down by 59%, and Germany has more than halved.
However in Norway the number of Tesla registrations has surged, nearly trebling over the same period. So why is Norway the outlier in Europe?
Norwegians flock for electric subsidies
A number of factors have combined to strangle sales of Tesla cars in Europe. The very public political dealings of company owner Elon Musk, aligning himself with President Donald Trump’s government, have alienated many potential buyers in Europe.
In Germany, in particular, Musk’s virtual appearance at an election rally for far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) sparked a wave of boycotts against Tesla. The boycotts go beyond individual customers, with pharmaceutical company Rossman announcing that they would be shifting their fleet vehicles away from Tesla cars going forward.
But in Norway, Tesla sales have exploded thanks in large part to an impending change to the tax system. Currently motorists can get a 25% VAT exemption for electric vehicles priced below 500,000 Norwegian kroner ($49,360).
However that is changing, with the threshold to be lowered to 300,000 kroner ($29,600) for 2026 and scrapped entirely in 2027. That means that prospective buyers had only a few months to buy a Tesla under the old tax exemption rules, creating a surge of demand for the cars.
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