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Comment by bovermyer | Hacker News Reader

The article touches on it a little, but I'd like to know answers to the following questions:

- Are car sales in general down?

- Are other EV makers seeing a corresponding uptick in sales?

- Are ICE vehicles seeing an uptick in sales?

Just knowing that Tesla sales for a specific model have tanked doesn't tell me enough. The article mentions that Polestar and BYD are seeing an increase in sales over the last year, but doesn't say whether the last couple months have seen a higher increase than previously.

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According to this article, year-over-year, EV sales are up 18% (globally)

https://rhomotion.com/news/global-ev-sales-grow-by-18-in-202...

> Are car sales in general down?

Apparently not [1]

> Are other EV makers seeing a corresponding uptick in sales?

Doesn't really look like it [2], but I've not plotted a line chart to see if it's just well distributed. There doesn't appear to be any 1 automaker that is breaking out with Tesla's drop.

> Are ICE vehicles seeing an uptick in sales?

Given the first two, I'd say probably. With sales pretty much the same and no EV brand that appears to have went up my guess is that ICE is where the slack is going.

[1] https://www.marklines.com/en/statistics/flash_sales/automoti...

[2] https://thedriven.io/2025/03/04/australian-electric-vehicle-...

>> Are car sales in general down?

>Apparently not [1]

>[1] https://www.marklines.com/en/statistics/flash_sales/automoti...

Your source says the opposite?

>Passenger car sales of 12,783 units in January represented a 22.2% decrease from the same period in 2024, SUV sales of 52,748 units represented a 5.9% increase

There's a dip for sure, but not quite the drastic dip of tesla sales. Also note that the number of passenger cars sold is much lower than the number of SUV. A fairly good indication that people are buying SUVs rather than passenger cars.

If you look at the bar graph, the total drop is 89k to 86k. Which represents about a 1% decrease in total sales.

Plunged, I tell you!

In Europe it varies by country, but in general Tesla is down while EV sales are up or steady.

> Figures published towards the end of February by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) showed that Tesla sold just 9,945 units in January, a 45 per cent fall from 18,161 in the same month a year earlier – and despite a 37 per cent growth in overall EV sales.

https://thedriven.io/2025/03/04/tesla-sales-continue-to-plum...

EV sales are up, and this is a market with full Chinese import activity and minimal tariffs - so I'm guessing the big winners are Chinese EVs (narrator: that's correct)

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/03/04/1842209/australia-w...

Tesla sell cars in the luxury car bracket in Australia. BYD and MG in the last few years started selling cheaper cars, and now dominate the market. In the last few months several manufacturers have dropped prices and released cheaper models. And more people are competing at Tesla's price point, like Polestar mentioned. So apart from the very real Musk hate from purchasers and their neighbors and family and friends and random vandals, there is now the option to buy more affordable vehicles or choice when buying a luxury car.

Yes. Global EV sales were 1.9 million in Dec 2024, 1.3 million in Jan 2025, and 1.4 million in Feb 2025. This is apparently typical after the holiday spending each year.

The article however is discussing year-over-year.

> The plunge in Tesla electric vehicle sales has continued into February, according to the latest official data, with combined sales of the Model Y and Model 3 EVs plunging 71.9 per cent in the month of February, compared to the same month a year earlier.

Meanwhile EV sales appear to be UP globally year-over-year (in this case, January 2024 to January 2025)

https://rhomotion.com/news/global-ev-sales-grow-by-18-in-202...

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