Tesla’s European EV Sales Plummet to Record Lows Amid U.S. Legal Battles

Elon's empire stumbles as Tesla faces a perfect storm in Europe—sales crater while stateside lawyers cash in.

Europe's EV appetite wanes just as Tesla's legal team revs up in U.S. courts. A masterclass in misaligned priorities.

Meanwhile, Wall Street still bets on the 'vision thing'—because nothing says 'sound investment' like shrinking sales and growing litigation.

High costs slow rivals while Tesla bets on cameras and AI

Making fully self-driving cars has turned out to be harder than expected. Steep expenses for essential components and stringent oversight have prompted competitors, including GM’s Cruise division, to scale back their ambitions.

Rather than employing costly lidar and radar, Musk relies on cameras paired with AI, setting Tesla’s approach apart from rivals like Waymo and Zoox.

Tesla initiated a limited beta of its self-driving taxi service in Austin this June, deploying roughly a dozen Model Y SUVs under the watch of onboard safety attendants. Musk said his EV firm has been “super paranoid about safety” and is pushing to make service available to half the U.S. population within five months.

The company is now awaiting approvals in several states. California’s Department of Motor Vehicles declined to comment on the potential effects of the Florida ruling, while Nevada and Arizona said they continue to review Tesla’s applications. Florida authorities had no immediate remark.

Tesla faces further hurdles in expanding Robotaxi across U.S.

A Florida court decision may impede Tesla’s introduction of its planned autonomous robotaxis.

In a recent ruling previously reported by Cryptopolitan, jurors awarded roughly $243 million to relatives of two crash victims from a 2019 incident involving an Autopilot-enabled Model S. The verdict concluded that Autopilot had faults contributing to the fatal outcome. Tesla maintained that driver error was to blame and has announced plans to appeal.

The outcome follows multiple federal inquiries and recall notices tied to incidents involving the company’s self-driving technology. Legal analysts caution that getting state regulators on board with a robotaxi rollout could take longer, potentially postponing Tesla’s goal to bring its service to half the U.S. population by the end of the year.

“Now there’s essentially an opinion that some aspect of Tesla’s business is not SAFE and maybe the safety that the company advertises isn’t what it’s cracked up to be,” said Aaron Davis, a legal partner at a Washington firm.

The standard Autopilot package manages vehicle pace, spacing and lane positioning on highways. The optional Full Self-Driving upgrade extends operation into urban areas, handling maneuvers such as turning and lane shifts.

Analysts at Piper Sandler note the Florida decision doesn’t directly apply to the latest FSD iterations.

Tesla has usually won or settled lawsuits over its driver-assistance system, but this case was different. In this incident, a Model S ran a stop sign and hit a parked Chevy Tahoe, killing two people nearby. The driver said he was picking up a dropped phone and didn’t get any warnings from the system. The jury decided Tesla’s Autopilot was at fault.

“It’ll take time for regulators to MOVE forward—definitely past the end of the year,” said Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management. “It’s a black eye for Tesla’s image.”

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