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WIRED
7 days ago
- Automotive
- WIRED
It Looks Like the Tesla Model Y Refresh Has Bombed
The high-selling Model Y is crucial for both Elon Musk and Tesla, but a half-hearted reskin of the car hasn't reversed the company's sales woes. Would a complete overhaul have been a better bet? Despite Elon Musk stepping away from his DOGE activities, Tesla's sales have continued to slide. No doubt Musk hoped that the release earlier this year of the refreshed Model Y would help reverse these fortunes; however, describing the six-year-old midsize crossover EV as 'new' appears not to have attracted as many buyers as Tesla anticipated. Model Y is crucial for Musk; it accounts for roughly two-thirds of Tesla's global sales (though this fluctuates). Last year, however, according to JATO Dynamics, the Y lost its top slot in the rankings for world's top-selling car in 2024 to Toyota. The revamped Model Y was launched in January, but it only became globally available through May. While there's no definitive data yet on how well the car is performing at retail—Tesla doesn't publish model or country sales number splits—the early signs do not look good. Many markets offer discounts and low-interest loans for the Model Y, and delivery is reportedly immediate for those interested, suggesting a general lack of demand, which is far different from the long wait times typically seen for the previous Model Y. The refreshed Model Y features a Cybertruck-like light bar on the front. Courtesy of Tesla With many analysts pinning Tesla's current woes on Musk's tanking popularity, bulls have kept the faith, claiming that last year's sales decline was mainly due to reduced inventory as production switched over to the revamped Model Y, with would-be customers delaying purchases until this year's delivery of the makeover of a vehicle unveiled back in 2019. According to the latest report from Kelley Blue Book, Tesla's US sales fell 9 percent in the first quarter. Receipts didn't pick up when the revamped Model Y became more widely available, with Kelley Blue Book estimating Model Y sales in the US falling by 15 percent year over year in the second quarter. (Tesla reported on July 2 it sold 384,122 cars in the second quarter of 2025, a near 15 percent decline from the previous year.) 'The hyper-competitive [US] EV market is providing the troubled automaker no relief,' noted Cox Automotive's analysis. Speaking on the second quarter Tesla figures, Cox Automotive's director of industry insights Stephanie Valdez Streaty says this was 'more than double the overall EV market's 6.3 percent drop, making it a standout in terms of softness.' However, she stresses, the Model Y still 'commands a dominant 28 percent share of the EV market.' Nevertheless, The New York Times reported that Tesla's factories were operating at just 70 percent capacity in the second quarter. Tesla sales in Europe remain depressed. In Sweden, Tesla sold 53.7 percent fewer cars in May compared to the same month a year earlier, while in Portugal sales were down 68 percent. And this was on top of similarly steep falls in previous months. Most other European markets were down by similar numbers, but inexplicably, in Norway, sales jumped by 213 percent in May, according to data from the Norwegian Road Federation. The future looks especially bleak for Tesla in China, the world's largest and most competitive automotive market. Data from the China Passenger Car Association shows that despite an uptick last month, Tesla sold 128,803 vehicles in China during the second quarter of 2025, a 4.3 percent decrease from the first quarter. Year-over-year, the decline is even starker at 11.7 percent compared to the second quarter of last year. This decline in China, Tesla's second-most-important market after the US, occurred despite showrooms offering discounts on the refreshed Model Y, providing 0 percent financing and reportedly staging street promotions featuring entertainers to draw in potential customers. Unlike long-in-the-tooth Tesla models, Chinese auto brands can launch new platforms within 18 months, and they file dozens of automotive-related patents daily. A new light bar running across the front hood and a few other tweaks on the refreshed Model Y are not head-turning in a Chinese market fizzing with innovation. The Model Y 'is not a new car,' says Jay Nagley from automotive consultancy Redspy. 'It's a heavy facelift. If it doesn't look new, then people don't think it's new. You can't order people to think differently; not even Elon Musk can do that.' Another light bar is on the rear … Courtesy of Tesla … while the side profile is largely unchanged. Courtesy of Tesla Tesla has 'fallen behind Chinese competition,' states David Bailey, professor of business economics at the University of Birmingham in England, with BYD now besting Tesla on most fronts. 'Rather than launching a more mass-market model, Tesla wasted a lot of money on the Cybertruck. And Tesla's autonomous technology is behind that of Chinese makers.' Essentially, adds Bailey, Tesla has 'gone from being a disruptor to being a laggard.' And the refreshed Model Y hasn't juiced Tesla at all. 'Model Y has not taken off to the degree that Tesla needed, because the competition has caught up and, in some cases, overtaken it at lower prices,' Bailey says. 'BYD can make a car at a lower cost with better battery technology. Tesla was relying on a premium position to allow them to charge a premium price, but they're now being out-competed with better tech at lower prices.' Referring to the promise of an entry-level EV, Bailey says that Tesla 'could have built at scale to get costs down. Musk has consistently said it's all about scale, and yet he's done other things.' Aside from potential missions to Mars, these other things include prioritizing politics over business now that Musk says he wants to launch a third party to disrupt the Republican-Democrat duopoly in the US. This is testing the patience of even the most gung-ho of Tesla's perma-bulls. Wedbush Securities tech analyst Dan Ives wrote a cautionary post on X in early July, urging Tesla to stop Musk's roving political eye with a fatter salary. Musk responded on X that Ives should 'shut up.' For several years, Ives has been one of Musk's most vociferous and loyal champions, but with estimated lower-than-promised sales of Model Y, no commercial release date for Tesla's humanoid robot, and a not entirely unproblematic robotaxi trial in Austin, Texas, he and many of Tesla's biggest investors are getting antsy. Tesla did not respond to WIRED's request for comment on this article. For Nagley, it's too early to talk about Tesla failing to survive, 'but the question is, can they thrive? One of the iron rules about the car industry is that there are model life cycles. People get bored of cars of one generation and want a new generation, or they go somewhere else,' he says. Customers 'have decided that a lot of Tesla cars, including the 'new' Model Y, are looking very familiar.' In an automotive world where China designs are advancing far faster than Western competitors, how cars look is becoming ever more crucial. For Jamie Tomkins, senior project designer at the Royal College of Art's Intelligent Mobility Design Centre in London, an only slightly updated Model Y design is a missed opportunity for Tesla. 'Just to update the front and rear and make it kind of Cybertruck-esque … it's not enough,' he says. Referring of the historical global success of the Y, Tomkins adds that it would have been prudent for Tesla to invest in a full redesign, 'but they've done it on the cheap. Any brilliance that Musk may have shown before is now history.' Frank Stephenson, the renowned auto designer who has worked for Ford, BMW, Ferrari, Maserati, Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, and McLaren, and is perhaps best known for redesigning the Mini, has a clear opinion. 'They've got a great design team [at Tesla]. But the worst designer at Tesla is Musk. I know a few guys on the team. They're very capable. It's just that when Elon says 'I want something' he gets it, and it's not to everybody's taste—which is I'm sure what happened with Cybertruck.' Model Y is 'the most successful volume seller for the brand, and it's doing well,' says Stephenson. 'But it's that philosophy of if it's not broken, don't fix it. But a lot of times, in the world of design, that is the wrong path. If you're not moving forward, you're moving back. So everybody's full on, especially the Chinese right now.' Stephenson feels that the addition of the light bars to the 'new' Model Y was a response to some of the more positive reactions to the Cybertruck—'so they borrowed that,' he says. 'The one on the back has the wow factor. The light bar on the front is as boring as you can make a light bar.' However, Musk appears to not merely be pinning hopes of extending the Model Y's lifespan on just the recent refresh. 'Grok is coming to Tesla vehicles very soon,' Elon Musk stated in a post on X earlier this month, though this only brings the EV brand in line with what the likes of Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen have already done in adding AI assistants to their vehicles. And just this week it's been revealed that Tesla has a longer-wheelbase version of the Y, the Model Y L (a six-seater, 456 HP, dual-motor iteration of its electric SUV) coming to China customers to fill the demand for such vehicles there right now. Whether it eventually also lands in the US remains unconfirmed. As it stands in the US market, GM, Rivian, and other brands have, relatively speaking, newer-minted EVs to sell—but while the Model Y has many rivals, there's not yet a clear Model Y killer in Western markets. It's very different in China. Last month, Xiaomi opened preorders for its YU7 SUV, amassing more than 200,000 down payments in mere minutes. Meanwhile, Xpeng debuted the G7, another Model Y rival, to similarly robust early demand. The YU7, in particular, could seriously dent Tesla's Model Y sales in China. Xiaomi makes a wide range of consumer electronic products—from smart TVs to beds—with millions of customers globally in its tech ecosystem. Musk would doubtless disagree, but many consider Xiaomi's tech superior to Tesla's: Its motors are better, its infotainment is slicker, and its design is fresher. And—the true killer blow—it's cheaper. The YU7 is $1,500 cheaper in China than the Model Y. To Musk's possible relief, the YU7 won't be delivered to most consumers until next year, and there might still be Tesla-style delivery snafus ahead for Xiaomi, but in the near future, and in markets outside of China, too, you can rest assured that the YU7 and Xpeng's G7 won't be the only Model Y killers out there. Tesla's refresh has not worked—Model Y is Model Yesterday.
New York Times
02-07-2025
- Automotive
- New York Times
Tesla Sales Fall as Elon Musk Focuses on Self-Driving Cars
Tesla's global car sales fell sharply in the second quarter, continuing a decline that began last year, as the company puts a greater emphasis on autonomous driving instead of new models aimed at attracting car buyers. The company said it delivered 384,000 vehicles from April through June, down from 444,000 a year earlier. Tesla's limited and aging lineup has not been able to withstand growing competition from relatively young Chinese carmakers like BYD and established Western companies like General Motors, Volkswagen and BMW. Elon Musk, Tesla's chief executive, has been seemingly indifferent to slumping vehicle sales, saying that the company's future lies with technology that will allow Teslas to operate autonomously and function as driverless taxis. Significant numbers of investors have bought into that vision and pushed up Tesla's stock market valuation to more than $940 billion. Last month Tesla began a closely watched test of Mr. Musk's ambition. Specially equipped Model Y sport utility vehicles, which it calls Robotaxis, began offering paid rides to handpicked guests in Austin, Texas. The guest riders, mostly Tesla enthusiasts with many social media followers, posted almost uniformly glowing reviews online. However, videos they shot betrayed some flaws in the technology, including instances when the cars braked suddenly, dropped off passengers in the middle of intersections, or required intervention from safety monitors who rode in the front passenger seats. Last week, in another milestone, a Tesla with nobody inside drove itself from the company's factory in Austin to a customer about half an hour away. 'There were no people in the car at all and no remote operators in control at any point. FULLY autonomous!' Mr. Musk wrote on X. Critics noted that videos posted by Tesla showed the car parking at the destination along a curb painted red and marked, 'No Parking Fire Lane.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Bloomberg
01-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Donald Trump, Elon Musk Fallout Deepens
Bloomberg's Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow discuss the clashes between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Plus, the Tesla CEO will oversee sales in Europe and the US as investors brace for disappointing delivery numbers in the second quarter. And, Apple considers using outside AI from Anthropic or OpenAI to power Siri.
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Elon Musk Is Still Losing It Over Being Called a ‘Nazi'
Elon Musk is still peeved that people likened him to a Nazi after he made an evocative gesture resembling a fascist salute on President Donald Trump's inauguration day. The Tesla CEO said Tuesday that he does not regret going full MAGA. He said it was the 'propaganda' legacy media that turned him into a divisive figure and tanked his company's car sales, not his own words and actions as Trump's temporary No. 2. 'How many legacy media publications, talk shows, whatever, try to claim that I was a Nazi because of some random hand gesture gesture at a rally where all I said was that my heart goes out to you,' Musk told CNBC. 'And I was talking about space travel, and yet the legacy media promote—promoted that as though that was a deliberate Nazi gesture, where, when, in fact, every politician, any public speaker who's spoken for any length of time, has made the exact same gesture.' Musk's response came after his interviewer, David Faber, asked if he had any regrets about how he ran the Department of Government Efficiency, which he no longer leads daily. Faber pointed out that anger with Musk may have stemmed more from his alliance with Trump and his work at DOGE than the gesture. He noted that the hordes of Americans Musk antagonized were current or potential Tesla customers—a reference to the electric car manufacturer's poor first quarter, which saw its sales and revenue drop significantly. 'Unfortunately, what I've learned is that legacy media propaganda is very effective at making people believe things that aren't true,' Musk said. Faber chimed in, 'What would an example of that be?' Musk continued, 'That I am a Nazi.' Tesla's share price dipped sharply at 2:20 p.m., which was around the same time Musk mentioned his 'Nazi' accusations. In 45 minutes, the stock price went from $354 to $342, a 3.39 percent drop. It slightly rebounded after, closing at $343 for the day. Musk, 53, has stringently denied allegations he gave a Roman or Nazi salute in Capital One Arena on Jan. 20, shortly after Trump was inaugurated. Whether people agree or not has largely broken down by political lines. Trump's biggest supporters defended the gesture as accidental, made by an awkward and excited man—a conclusion the Anti-Defamation League also reached, just a day before it had to condemn Musk for making Holocaust jokes on X. Faber said on Tuesday that he spoke to people close to Musk who were adamant that his gesture was not a Nazi salute. Those explanations did not stop America's actual neo-Nazis from celebrating the gesture. It was further condemned by officials in Germany, where such gestures are considered a crime, and by many prominent Democrats. Musk suggested customers should not care about the political views of a company's chief executive, even if that very executive facilitated and celebrated their firing. 'I mean, look, for most you buy a product, I mean, how much do you care about the political views of the CEO, or do you even know what they are?' Musk told Faber. Faber also mentioned to Musk that DOGE, now four months into its official existence, remained well below its savings expectations. DOGE's website says it has made $170 billion in savings, which is well short of the 'at least $2 trillion' that Musk vowed to slash in his first year at DOGE. Musk referenced that figure in Tuesday's interview. In reality, Faber noted that DOGE's savings are likely much lower than that. 'That's your number that's out there,' Faber said. 'A lot of people take issue with it and say, 'Well, you know, taxpayers' expenses, such as paid leave, that's $135 billion that's got to come back. IRS collection may go down as a result of cuts there.' Faber then fact-checked Musk with data he received from Grok, which is Musk's AI company that he hopes can compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT. 'We asked Grok,' Faber said. 'It said between five and 32 billion is what you've actually saved.' Musk countered that Faber likely asked the question wrong before asking, 'So why are you attacking this, given that we've made so much progress?' Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Yahoo
Cook County woman allegedly vandalized Tesla service center in suburb
The Brief A Buffalo Grove woman was arrested after allegedly vandalizing a Tesla service center. The incident comes amid nationwide protests against Elon Musk's role in the Trump administration. Erin L. White faces felony criminal damage and trespassing charges. COOK COUNTY - A Buffalo Grove woman was arrested last week after vandalizing a newly constructed Tesla service center in Chicago's northwest suburbs, police said. What we know On March 14, Buffalo Grove police responded to a vandalism report at the Tesla Sales, Service, and Delivery Center on Dundee Road at 4:07 p.m. Erin L. White, 27, was taken into custody and charged with felony criminal damage to property (Class 4 Felony) and criminal trespass (Class B Misdemeanor). Big picture view Tesla car owners, dealerships and charging stations have been targeted nationwide by protesters and vandals because of CEO Elon Musk's involvement with the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which aims to slash wasteful spending and fraud within the federal government. The cost-cutting measures have led to mass federal layoffs. On Friday, protesters in Schaumburg gathered along Golf Road, holding signs that read "Save Democracy" and calling for a Tesla boycott. While some support Musk's $2 trillion spending cut initiative, opponents believe his influence in government raises conflicts of interest and puts Social Security and public health programs at risk. What we don't know Buffalo Grove police did not provide details regarding what White allegedly did to vandalize the Tesla service center. The Source Buffalo Grove Police Department, and previous FOX 32 reporting.
