Tesla reported a decline of 13% in sales. Sales of Tesla electric cars fell sharply in the last three months as boycotts over Elon Musk's political views continue to keep buyers away, a significant development given expectations that anger with the company's billionaire CEO would have faded by now. The company reported a 13% plunge in sales on Wednesday in a sign that Musk's embrace of US President Donald Trump and far-right politicians in Europe has had a deep and enduring impact on Tesla's brand appeal. Story continues below Advertisement Remove Ad After Musk once again took to social media to criticise Trump's budget bill, the president threatened Tuesday to use the power of his office to hurt his companies, including Tesla, pushing its stock down more than 5%. The new figures come as Tesla is focusing less on new models and more on robots, self-driving technology and robotaxis ferrying passengers around without anyone behind the wheel. Tesla is in the midst of a test run of robotaxis in Austin, Texas, that seems to have gone smoothly for the most part. But it also has drawn the scrutiny of federal car safety regulators because of a few mishaps, including one case in which a Tesla cab was shown on a video heading down an opposing lane. The competition from rival EV makers is especially fierce in Europe where China's BYD has taken a bite out of its market share. Tesla sales fell 28% in May in 30 European countries even as the overall market for electric vehicles expanded sharply, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association. Musk has acknowledged that his work as head of the Department of Government Efficiency and his embrace of European far-right candidates have hurt the company. But he attributed much of the sales plunge to customers holding off while they waited for new versions of Tesla's best selling Model Y. Tesla reports second quarter financial result on July 23. In the first quarter, net income fell 71%. Associated Press