Tesla demand is rebounding in Europe, with April registrations climbing 46.5% year-over-year and weekly sales accelerating into May.
The recovery follows a difficult 2025, when Tesla shut down its Gigafactory outside Berlin in the first quarter to retool for the refreshed Model Y, weighed on European deliveries as Chinese rivals expanded aggressively, and lacked the lower-priced Model 3 and Model Y variants the company has since added to its European lineup.
Chinese rivals tightening their grip on the European market include BYD, SAIC‘s brand MG, Geely brands such as Geely Auto and Zeekr, and Chery‘s Chery Auto, Jetour and Omoda & Jaecoo.
Xiaomi, one of Tesla‘s main rivals in China, is also scheduled to enter the European market next year.
According to data from national vehicle registration associations and the tracking platform EU-EVs — compiled by EV — Tesla registered 11,187 vehicles across 23 European markets in April.
The figures published on Wednesday by European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) showed that 10,654 Tesla EVs were sold across the EU, EFTA countries and the UK last month, a 46.5% year-over-year increase from the 7,272 units sold in April 2025.
Year-to-date registrations stood at 89,429 units by the end of April, up 45.8% from the same period a year earlier.
Weekly Tracker Points to Stronger May
While ACEA’s April figures already showed Tesla pulling well ahead of its 2025 pace, weekly data tracked by X user ‘piloly’ suggests the company’s momentum has accelerated further in May.
The figures have been drawn from the ten European countries that publish daily or weekly registration figures, and which together account for roughly 60% of Tesla‘s European sales.
These include the UK, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Iceland.
According to the user, Tesla reported 1,400 sales in the week of April 27 to May 3, up 26.3% week over week and 2.9% from the same week a year earlier.
Sales climbed to 2,500 units in the week of May 4 to 10, a 78.8% sequential jump and a 47.8% year-over-year increase.
In the following week, May 11 to 17, registrations reached 2,700 units — up 7.7% week over week and 23.5% from the same week last year.
Tesla‘s most recent reading covers the week of May 18 to 24, when the company reported 3,600 sales across the ten tracked markets — a 32.4% sequential gain and a 67.7% year-over-year increase, marking the best week of the second quarter so far.
After eight weeks of the quarter, sales in those countries are running 60.8% above the prior quarter and 35.7% above the same period of 2025, while year-to-date sales are up 20.0%.
Model Y and Local Production
The recovery has been driven primarily by renewed interest in the refreshed Model Y, which is produced for European customers at Tesla‘s Grünheide plant just outside Berlin.
The first quarter of 2025 saw the factory pause production to switch over to the new Model Y before ramping back up to 5,000 units per week over several weeks, a transition that weighed on quarterly delivery numbers.
That bottleneck has now eased.
Last month, Tesla told Deutsche Presse-Agentur that the management of the Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg announced it would create 1,000 new jobs by the end of June.
The new hires are expected to allow the company to increase weekly production by around 20% starting in the third quarter.
Tesla described the move as a direct response to the increased demand for the Model Y.
The company said it expects to convert approximately 500 temporary workers to permanent, full-time roles over the course of the year.
Plant manager André Thierig has previously confirmed that output at Grünheide rose in every quarter of 2025, with the factory having built more than 700,000 Model Y units since production began in 2022.
The site employed around 12,400 people just over two years ago before reductions were made amid softer market conditions, and the current hiring push partially reverses that decline.
Tesla is also recruiting several hundred additional employees for battery cell production at the site, with a nearly €100 million investment in a cell factory expected to come online in the first half of 2027.
The pricing side of the equation has also shifted.
In late April, Tesla raised Model Y prices by around €1,000 across several European markets, including Norway, France, the Netherlands, and Germany — a move widely interpreted as a signal that demand is outpacing available supply.
FSD Approval
A second tailwind has come from the rollout of Tesla‘s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software in Europe.
The Dutch vehicle authority RDW granted provisional type-approval to FSD on April 10, with the first software update rolling out to customers in the Netherlands shortly after.
Earlier this month, Lithuania became the second European country to permit the driver-assistance software on public roads, after the country’s Ministry of Transport and Communications recognised the temporary EU-type approval issued by the RDW.
A vote on EU-wide approval is now expected following the European Commission’s Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles meeting scheduled for late June.
Tesla vs. Chinese Newcomers
The April ACEA data also offered a reminder that Tesla is recovering into a far more crowded competitive field than the one it dominated in earlier years.
BYD registered 27,008 vehicles across the EU, EFTA, and UK in April, a 114.5% year-over-year increase that brought the Chinese automaker to a 2.3% market share — higher than Tesla‘s 0.9%.
The Chinese giant offers both plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and fully electric models in Europe, while Tesla only produces battery electric vehicles (BEV).
Chery Automobile recorded the steepest growth in absolute terms among major manufacturers, with April registrations of 24,398 units, up 322.3% from 5,777 a year earlier.
Through the first four months of the year, Chery has sold 94,456 vehicles in the region, a 338.0% increase.
Leapmotor, the Chinese EV startup distributed in Europe through Stellantis under their joint venture, registered 8,745 vehicles in April, a 403.7% year-over-year jump.
Geely Group — which includes Geely, Zeekr, Smart, Lynk & Co, and the Swedish-headquartered Volvo Cars and Polestar — registered 36,405 vehicles in April, up 9.1%, and 138,429 year to date.
The competitive picture is set to grow more crowded in 2027, when Xiaomi — currently considered one of Tesla‘s main rivals in the Chinese market — is scheduled to begin selling vehicles in Europe.
The SU7 sedan, its debut model, outperformed Tesla‘s Model 3 sales figures across several months in China last year.
The Beijing-based tech giant has been ramping production of its SU7 sedan and YU7 SUV at its Beijing plant.
Co-founder and CEO Lei Jun has said the company intends to begin overseas exports starting in 2027.
