Hacker News Reader

Comment by misja111 | Hacker News Reader

Tesla sales are plummeting all over the world currently, also in the US. But with Musk in the US government, I wonder how long it will take before there will be tariffs on foreign cars big enough to pretty much force US citizens to buy his Tesla's.

View on HN

Is it not the case that any tariff would apply to US made tesla's where the majority of the global stock is made in China, so wouldnt necessarily be affected?

Only if you expect them to play by the rules. They have indicated they do not wish to do that.

I don't think so since Tesla isn't importing the China made cars into the US, ergo no tariff to pay.

likewise a counter tariff from another country will not affect tesla as global stocks are prob from china

Lots of "foreign" cars are already built in the US. If they're going to inflate imports... the ones that have gone through it in the 80s benefit the most. Toyota produces about as many cars as they sell in US across North America.

>Tesla sales are plummeting all over the world currently, also in the US.

No. Sales plummeted right before they released the long-awaited refresh of the Model Y. By far their best selling model.

We have access to weekly sales numbers in China, and guess what, sales are going through the roof again.

This refresh was introduced globally (all factories converted simultaneously), which is a first for Tesla.

Long-awaited by who?

People looking for a new SUV wherever the Y is more popular than the RAV4, maybe?

You can start with Norway for example: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=NO&q=%...

The UK: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=GB&q=%...

California: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US-CA&...

You get this.

Have you got the source? I feel like someone would be shouting loudly about it if that was the case.

https://x.com/piloly/status/1884095767780155666/photo/1

What does "china insurance data" mean? What is specifically counted there?

"New registrations represent the number of vehicles that have been officially registered for the first time with the relevant government ministry or insurance agency, including domestically produced and imported vehicles"

https://www.iea.org/reports/global-ev-outlook-2023/trends-in...

Well last month they didn't exactly go through the roof in China.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/teslas...

Obviously. The new Juniper version was launched January 24, 2025.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ6e4-1uuGA

There are still other domestic manufacturers and those have enough political pull on both sides to stop any meddling on internal markets.

We've got Musk in charge of reviewing his own federal funding right now. Until that is stopped, why expect any sanity in what happens with internal markets?

Is the US domestic market only Tesla? I swear you had a couple of other brands last time i looked in 2007.

And the counter tariffs would kill Tesla‘s business everywhere else.

I doubt Tesla can survive with US sales only.

No need for counter tariffs, non-US customers seem to be unwilling to buy them at this point https://www.ft.com/content/ea2329e4-b4bc-4e2d-be34-e9a8ea311....

This point being… the short, particular period between when people awaits for the Model Y refresh and when people can buy that new model. That didn't last long (check China's number https://x.com/piloly/status/1884095767780155666/photo/1).

They are many political things to say, but misreading numbers doesn't do any good in the long run ("never underestimate your enemy").

What's "china insurance data"? New sales only? Including resale? Renewals?

A real Volkswagen then.

You mean like the 10% tarrifs on US cars the European Union has had for ages?

Is that on top of the ~25% VAT?

Yep

They pay a tax on top of another tax?

Yes, after you've paid your income tax, of course.

The VAT is on the final price, which already includes any tarrifs, so it's the other way around, but yes.

The tariffs are used partly to force foreign manufacturers to build factories in the US. So their IP and production lines are in the North American Technate.

Japan recently got the usual Trump pressure/blackmail of investing $1 trillion in the US.

Subsidies for Tesla would look pretty silly given that the Republicans have been criticizing the Democrats for that for the last 10 years. But YouTube influencers could rationalize even that.

I don't even understand how having a business magnate and CEO of multiple USA companies can get a job in their government without being obligated to resign from their CEO mandates and without it just being plainly illegal. At least when they were corrupting people they at least pretended they were in the clear.

Yet again, with two Trump presidencies, I don't understand a lot about anything anymore.

Were government officials ever obligated? Or did they do so due to personal ethics? I mean, Trump and Melania have 2 meme coins. The POTUS is directly benefitting from his position and fleecing Americans.

For every rule you need someone who would enforce it. So if you first remove all the enforcers, then you can break all the rules and nothing* happens. And they have prepared for this moment for decades. At this moment it would be more surprising if they were somehow stopped.

* There might be a bit of a public outcry, but not too much because they have prepared for that too.

> Tesla sales are plummeting all over the world

Uhhh...he's selling 5x as many cars than than when Covid hit and nearly the peak of sales...ever?

https://cnevpost.com/2025/01/02/tesla-global-deliveries-q4-2...

Sure, if you look back long enough you will eventually manage to find an increase in sales. But most people look at month-over-month or year-over-year figures, and those are terrible. See e.g. https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/tesla-sales-plummeting-early...

Ummm. Q4 2024 is the highest quarterly volume ever?

And your article is about a few European countries, not global sales.

And looking at a single month, year over year for a handful of countries doesn’t tell you much.

Tesla seems to be doing fantastic by any measure.

On the other hand Trump killed the EV charger subsidies, so that doesn't really help Tesla.

He didn't kill the funding, he's just violating the US Constitution by deliberately failing at his job to enforce the laws. We should avoid phrasing that makes it sound normal. (Congress can "kill" a law, he can't.)

That said, it's hard to say what motive might be going on. Did someone just convince him that it was a safe thing to target? Does he think his actions will frustrate or hurt Democratic states? Or maybe he just needs something in jeopardy that he can hold above Elon as a form of extortion.

I think it impacts others more. Tesla has already built the experience and scale to beat other US manufacturers at EV’s. It’s harder to follow without subsidies.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com