(BFM Stock Exchange) – The action of the American car manufacturer specializing in electricity is under high pressure while group registrations plunged 45.2% in January in extended Europe.

Tesla returns under a symbolic bar this Tuesday, February 25. The market capitalization (the value of all the shares) of the American manufacturer specializing in electric vehicles fell under the $ 1,000 billion, at $ 973.5 billion, while its action is offset.

Around 5:40 p.m. French time, the Tesla title collapsed from 8.9% to 301.1 dollars.

The action of the group falls after the ACEA, the association of European automotive manufacturers, published worrying figures for Tesla for the month of January.

>> Access our exclusive graphic analyzes, and enter into the confidence of the trading portfolio

Far from market growth

On the first month of the year, sales of electric vehicles in the European Union were on the rise, increasing by 34% to 124,341 units, or 15% of the global market.

A growth that can partly explain by the entry into force of a hardening of the regulation on CO2 emissions. This pushes manufacturers to accentuate their commercial efforts to sell more electric vehicles.

“Some European manufacturers can try to shift their sales in electric to count them in 2025 (and not at the end of 2024, editor’s note), the year when standards will be much more strict in terms of CO2 emissions,” explained in January at News Bulletin 247, Adrien Brasey, from the independent AlphaValue design office.

If the electric vehicle is therefore the wind, tesla on its side suffers and not just a little. Throughout the European Union, its registrations melted by 50.3% over a year in January. In counting the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland, the fall of volumes increases to “only” 45.2%, to 9,945 units.

A market specialist links the decline of Tesla registrations to an intensification of competition with the arrival of new models, both on larger segments (electric scenic, peugeot e3008) but also on city cars (Renault5, Citroën EC3 ). In comparison Tesla, on the contrary, presents an aging range in terms of “design”, estimates this expert.

Musk’s activity in Washington is kidding

The group has promised that new “more affordable” models would be launched this year. Note that according to figures reported by Royal Bank of America, Tesla also saw its sales fall by 15.5% in January in China.

Compared to her summits affected in December, when Tesla had been swept through a post-election rally by Donald Trump in the White House, the Tesla action has now unscrewed by 37%.

Elon Musk’s political ambitions, who decided to pilot an unofficial department in Washington to cut an ax in the expenditure of the American federal state, were able to worry investors. This department is called “DOGE” for “DEPARTMENT OF GOVERMENT EFFICIENT”.

“The concern of Wall Street is that Musk devotes as much time (even more than expected) to Doge, to the detriment of Tesla, at a crucial time for the company,” explains Dan Ives de Wedbush.

“The battle of autonomy and robotics for market share is booming in the United States and China, and many observers consider that the fact that Musk devotes ‘100 % of its time’ to DOGE creates a Negative perception of the attention he pays to Tesla, “he adds.

By Julien Marion and Pauline Ducamp