View Comments Tesla Inc.’s sales plummeted 59% last month in Germany, where Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk asserted himself in national politics like never before. The US manufacturer registered only 1,277 new cars in January, its lowest monthly total since July 2021, according to the German Federal Motor Transport Authority. Tesla lost substantial ground in an electric vehicle market that was up 54% for the month, suggesting Musk’s vocal support for the far-right Alternative for Germany party likely dragged on demand. Tesla also posted declines in the UK and France last month, meaning its sales fell in Europe’s three largest EV markets. In addition to vouching for AfD leader Alice Weidel and taking on Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Labour government, Musk spent the month cementing his position in the administration of US President Donald Trump, who’s threatened to hit the European Union with tariffs. The company’s sales plunged 63% last month in France - the EU’s second-biggest EV market, after Germany - and dropped 12% in the UK. Tesla shares traded down as much as 2.3% shortly after the start of US trading Wednesday. Musk, 53, hosted a live discussion with Weidel on his social media site X ahead of Germany’s federal election this month. During a virtual appearance at a party rally later in January, the Tesla CEO urged Germans to be proud of their culture and, in an apparent reference to wartime atrocities under the Nazis, discouraged “too much focus on past guilt.” The remarks - made just before the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp - sparked outrage in a country where reckoning with the past is central to its postwar identity. Other factors outside of politics are likely at play in Tesla’s slow start to the year. The company is changing over assembly plants to produce a redesigned Model Y, its best-selling vehicle, which will result in several weeks of lost production this quarter. One of those factories is located just outside of Berlin. Tesla also may be contending with shortages of inventory in some markets due to the all-out push the company made to boost sales late last year. While the automaker delivered more vehicles than ever in the fourth quarter, it fell short of a forecast for slight growth for the full year. Instead, the company posted its first annual decline in more than a decade. But there have been more signs outside of Europe that Musk’s politics are having an effect on the carmaker he runs. Tesla registered fewer cars in California in all four quarters of 2024, as sales of its second-most important vehicle - the Model 3 - plunged 36% for the year. California went for Trump’s opponent Kamala Harris by 20.2 points in November, and Musk feuded with Governor Gavin Newsom throughout the year.