Tesla's sales in Europe have officially plummeted for the fifth month in a row in May, delivering a staggering blow to its investors.
Per ABC, Tesla's automotive sales dropped a further 28 percent last month across 30 European countries, despite a booming demand for EVs from other manufacturers.
As Elon Musk's pet company falters, other companies are making out bigtime. For example, China's SAIC sold over 18,000 vehicles across Europe in May, while Tesla didn't even break 9,000, according to ABC.
The numbers come after Musk's loud — and messy — departure from the White House, which Tesla insiders hoped would ease some of the pressure from anti-Musk protests and boycotts. While Tesla executives might be anxious to forgive and forget, consumers around the world are in no hurry to move on.
With sales in the gutter thanks to Musk's irreversible brand damage, and Donald Trump's cutoff of taxpayer-funded EV credits, the company desperately needs Musk's long-promised robotaxi program to work out.
Tesla's hype-laundering CEO recently promised to put "hundreds of thousands, if not over a million" self driving cars on the road by 2026. But if the company's robotaxi pilot program in Austin is any indication, European EV sales might be the least of its concerns.
In Austin, each robotaxi ride comes complete with a human "safety monitor" in the front seat, ready to stop the ride the second things get hairy. And, being a Tesla, things often get hairy.
Earlier this week, video surfaced of a Tesla almost colliding with a mail truck as it dropped a passenger off. Luckily, the safety monitor was able to intervene. Another video recorded the moment a Tesla Model Y's steering wheel begin rapidly turning back and forth in the middle of an intersection.
One media stunt organized by anti-Tesla group The Dawn Project and Tesla Takedown in Austin showed residents a self-driving Model Y's complete lack of regard for a stopped school bus, which it flies past before plowing into a child crash test dummy.
Indeed, from almost the minute the pilot began, robotaxis have been breaking road laws, drawing intense scrutiny from government safety agencies.
The embarrassing pilot rollout has sent Tesla's stock into a tailspin, despite an initial bump as the program went live.
With time running out on Musk's last-ditch effort to save Tesla's spot as one of the world's most valuable tech companies, it'll take nothing short of a miracle to reverse the catastrophic damage that's already been done. In other words, Tesla's cooked.
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