By Alessandro Parodi and Louise Rasmussen
April 1 (Reuters) – New registrations of Tesla cars more than tripled in France in March, just shy of a two-year-old record high, and doubled in the Nordic countries, data showed on Wednesday, in the latest sign of the EV giant’s sales recovery in Europe.
Tesla, the world’s most valuable automaker by market capitalisation, lost almost half its European market share in 2025 due to a combination of growing competition, especially from Chinese brands, its lack of new models and reaction to CEO Elon Musk’s political stance.
Since it started to roll out new, cheaper versions of its Model Y and Model 3 to consumers in the U.S. and Europe late last year, Tesla’s European registrations, a proxy for sales, have reversed course and returned to growth in February.
MARCH REGISTRATIONS SPIKE
March registrations in France, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, the first European markets to report monthly figures, showed further acceleration.
In France, 9,569 new Teslas were registered, data from French car body PFA showed on Wednesday, a 203% increase from a year earlier. That was just below an all-time high of 9,572 vehicles registered in December 2023.
Overall, monthly car sales in France grew for the first time since October.
In Norway, Sweden and Denmark, Tesla registrations were up by 178%, 144% and 96% at 6,150, 1,447 and 1,784 vehicles, respectively, data from OFV, bilstatistik.dk and Mobility Sweden showed.
In a letter sent to British media last month, Tesla said registrations are usually skewed towards the end of each quarter due to the way cars are shipped.
Its first-quarter registrations grew 108% in France, 95% in Norway, 48% in Sweden and 50% in Denmark.
Italy, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands are expected to report March registration figures later on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Alessandro Parodi, Louise Rasmussen and Camille Raynaud; Editing by Sonali Paul, Matt Scuffham and Milla Nissi-Prussak)
