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• Elon Musk’s political stint hurt Tesla’s image and coincided with a sharp global sales drop.
• Tesla is losing market share around the world, and Elon’s time at DOGE is partly to blame.
• Tesla hopes its cheaper Standard models and the Cybercab will help it on the sales charts.

It’s undeniable that Elon Musk’s political foray had a direct effect on Tesla EV sales. His four months leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) coincided with a visible decline in Tesla’s vehicle sales, and it cost the brand its position as a market leader in many markets worldwide.

Musk previously stated that he was not satisfied with the DOGE savings during his tenure, describing the results as “somewhat successful,” according to the Associated Press. Musk made these remarks on a podcast with his current aide and former advisor at DOGE, conservative influencer Katie Miller. And he added that if he could do it again, he wouldn’t do DOGE. 

“Instead of doing DOGE, I would have, basically, built … worked on my companies,” Musk said.

Looking at Tesla’s sales performance this year, it’s not hard to see why Musk regrets going into politics, even though that’s exactly what he wanted when he sponsored Donald Trump’s campaign and played an important part in his reelection. But even if DOGE had performed better under his leadership, the Tesla, SpaceX and X boss still wouldn’t have seen it favorably if it affected his business as much as it did.

He went on to say that “They wouldn’t have been burning the cars” if he hadn’t made things political. That’s a reference to vandalism and arson incidents in the U.S. and Europe, which were reportedly exclusively politically motivated.

2025 is expected to be the second consecutive year of declining sales and lowering market share for Tesla, with deliveries falling around the globe. They plummeted last month in some of the biggest European markets: 50% down in Sweden and France and 40% in Denmark, Portugal and the Netherlands, according to Reuters, although they were up in Norway and Italy.

Increasing competition in Europe from both local and Chinese players has had a compound effect, with the falling brand image further affecting sales. In China, EV buyers were less interested in Elon’s political adventure, and Tesla’s stagnating sales here were the result of buyers increasingly shunning Western brands and buying something local that better fit their taste, preferences and sense of national pride.

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Tesla once held an 80% share of the U.S. EV market, but that fell below 40% this year for the first time since 2017. The fact that the Cybertruck fell out of favor with buyers didn’t help, but now that the manufacturer has introduced cheaper Standard versions of its two bestsellers, it hopes sales will bounce back.

It also intends to sell its Cybercab, which comes without pedals or a steering wheel, starting next year. However, regulators are pushing back, and Tesla may have to reengineer its robotaxi with interior controls in order to be allowed to sell it (driving it with a gaming controller won’t cut it). Musk has also made it clear numerous times that Tesla was shifting its focus away from simply being a car manufacturer, putting much more emphasis on self-driving technology and artificial intelligence than before.

However, the AI-powered autonomous driving part of the business seems to be hitting hurdles. Tesla will likely not be able to begin selling the Cybercab next year, nor will it be able to roll out its Full Self Driving automated driving suite in Europe. Even though Musk seemed very optimistic about FSD in Europe, regulators are not rushing through the process of legalizing it for use on the continent’s public roads, much to the Tesla boss’s frustration.

In the meantime, how he intends to win back Tesla customers remains unclear.