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Comment by needcontainers | Hacker News Reader

The article states that T-Online, a German news outlet, polled 100,000 readers, with 94% rejecting Tesla and only 3% considering a purchase. While the sample size is unusually large for a survey, the methodology isn’t detailed in the article. Online reader polls, like those often conducted by news sites, are typically self-selecting—participants choose to respond rather than being randomly sampled. This introduces significant bias, as those motivated to participate may already hold strong opinions, especially given Musk’s polarizing public image. Without information on how the survey was conducted (e.g., random sampling, controls for bias), its scientific validity is questionable.

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Sales number are not good in germany either, but I know Elon fans have an excuse for this too. Anyway is clear that even if this numbers are not correct Tesla's image is fcked, now buying a Tesla is giving money to a nazi and an enemy (on top of the other Elon's "qualities")

Sales numbers are not good, ok, but a fact is: ID.7 is until now (2025) the most sold e-car. Just in front of ID.4 and ID.5.

https://www.adac.de/news/neuzulassungen-kba/

Even if you don't understand German there is graph showing how many Tesla cars were bought/registered in Feb 2025.

I know in EU Tesla sales are down compared to previous year while EV sales are up. We do not know for sure how much of this is Elon's comments and support of fascists and how much is other cars getting better, but if we wait more data will be available.

I think it's both. There is also a sense of "buy german cars because people are getting fired and losing jobs" etc. (=buy local)

Very difficult to measure, but I wouldn't minimize it.

Interestingly the Tesla Model Y seems to have dropped very quickly, you can also find the year-end report for 2024 here where Model Y was number 1: https://www.adac.de/news/auto-bilanz-e-autos-2024/

If you look at the data for 2023 you can also see that Tesla sold about the same number of any of their model as VW did for the ID series (both ~60k). That seems to have stayed flat for VW in 2024 according to the table from ADAC, but Tesla overall sales dropped significantly to ~30k. If you extrapolate the February numbers they are on track to halve sales again this year, while VW is on track to sell 30k more cars than they did last year (I know extrapolation is not going to be super accurate here)

The article does not claim scientific standards, and in reality, it is probably not exactly 94%. However, it is likely a very significant amount.

Considering that Germany has never been the easiest market for Tesla, there are many reasons for this trend. Germans like their local manufacturers. It is probably not surprising—and not far from reality—that the majority of people would not consider buying a Tesla at this time.

trust me, this is absolutely NOT about liking local manufacturers ...

Well, besides all other concerns regarding Tesla or electric cars in general, Germany has really HIGH prices for electricity.

That may be included with the purchase, depending on the time and/or model,

but then you are dependent on the supercharger network of theirs,

which hasn't really convenient coverage.

Or you're doing it on your own at home with solar, heat-pump, wallcharger, whatever.

Which isn't an option for many, because Germany also is a nation of RENTERS,

meaning not owning a house, and thus being dependent on the whims of landlords.

Which aren't that enthusiastic about investments in general.

Complications, complications...

Now imagine living there in some large city which has everything, maybe even owning your condo, but not the whole building.

No solar, no wallchargers, and even if, they'd charge insane prices for the charging :)

So search for superchargers it is.

Such luck, there's a shopping mall even in walking distance with a few superchargers.

Phew!

Accessible only through the parking space.

Which is gated by turnpikes.

Which close at 8PM and open at 8 or 9AM (because being german)...

Forget sundays...

Actually I don't even own a car in .de and only know of this because some danish tourists asked me about superchargers for their Tesla on my way home from that shopping mall.

And couldn't believe it, neither could I.

They'd needed to cross the whole town to near the airport, while their Tesla was very low on charge,

which they wasted even more so because of circling around trying to find access past the gates...

Now this happened in Germanys second largest town, and still is the case.

Imagine how this is elsewhere, less dense, but where that rentage thing still applies for many...

Living in the US it still doesn't make sense to me, maybe because somewhere way out there at 2600m altitude near some resort town in the rockies.

I don't really care about the money for solar installation there, but it's impractical because of winds, and snow.

I see this as a phenomenon of the zeitgeist, enjoying gamified crap and virtue signaling, while the infrastructure isn't really there ATM.

So gas it is. Not necessarily guzzling. Just more convenient and practical.

Yeah, if you just phone random people they'll probably say Tesla is bad. It's different to a while later when the news has faded and they are actually buying a car and comparing options.

It's also misleading to frame responses of "aren't considering buying a Tesla" as "won't buy a Tesla", because most of those respondents aren't considering buying any vehicle at all.

"I'm not buying a car! And I'm especially not buying a Tesla!"

T-Online is generally not representative.

The whole article is a bad political piece against Musk, with blatant falsehoods, masquerading as industry news.

Yet, so much news is like this.

The so called objectivity of news may be the exception to the rule.

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