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Comment by tjpnz | Hacker News Reader

Closing in? Try all but irrelevant outside the US. It's not going to be a make you give much thought when considering an EV purchase. Vastly different situation five years ago.

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Wasn't Tesla Model Y globally the most sold car in 2023 and 2024. And second most sold car in 2025 (Toyota RAV4 was the most sold model).

Given that, objectively speaking I could not call Tesla irrelevant.

It's not a very good comparison as Tesla has far fewer models than other carmakers.

The number of models doesn’t seem that relevant? If anything it would make Tesla’s numbers all the more impressive being a niche market EV.

Of course its relevant as Tesla is valued to much more than the other makers despite selling in total fewer cars.

Tesla is indeed a niche maker, but their valuation does not reflect that fact.

We’re not discussing valuation we’re discussing model sales?

As I recall, the original Bondi blue iMac was the best selling model of personal computer at the time. This wasn't because Apple suddenly stopped being the Betamax of the home computer world, it's because there was only one model when everyone else had a full range, and the effect disappeared the moment they came out in multiple colours.

Same deal with Tesla: They have two core models (Y top, 3 next, all else a rounding error), while everyone else has a full range that sales are split across.

If I want to buy a four-door Toyota sedan, I could buy a Prius, Corolla, Camry, Crown, or Mirai (not even counting Lexus or Century models), diluting each model's car sales, while overall vastly outselling Tesla. Ditto for cross-overs, SUVs, etc.

Tesla might maintain its current level of sales/revenue while losing 95% of its market cap. Whether it’ll survive the market cap deflation is the question.

The market can remain irrational more than you can remain solvent. But the writing is on the wall for the valuation.

As others have noted, breakdown by model probably isn't accurate since Tesla has so few models. I did some shallow searching and it appears Tesla sales were down 8% in 2025 [0] while global EV sales were up 20% [1]. It's a crude comparison but probably more accurate than models.

0 - https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/02/tesla-tsla-q4-2025-vehicle-d...

1 - https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/global...

It's literally the best selling car in Norway with a over 50% increase in sales YoY.

The rest of the European market is a "bloodbath".

https://electrek.co/2026/01/06/tesla-full-2025-data-europe-t... https://www.reuters.com/business/tesla-registrations-slump-f...

Norway is an anomaly.

Examples for Europe, 2025 vs. 2024:

  Sweden: -68%
  Belgium: -53%
  Germany: -48%
  France: -37%
  Switzerland: -28%
  Portugal: -22%
  Italy: -18%

Edit: I fail list formatting

Norway representing a wopping 1% of EU car sales. [1]

[1] https://www.best-selling-cars.com/europe/2024-full-year-euro...

Is this important market?

Norway is just 5-6 million population. Does being number 1 in Norway even mean anything?

UK is near 70million. Germany 80million. What about the stats for those? How many Teslas were sold as percentage in UK?

IIRC Norway is one of the few markets where EV growth is positive rather than negative, due to their abundant electric gen and other factors

I don’t think you do recall correctly. Electrek has European EV sales at +33% in 2025 over 2024. It’s not possible for Norway to turn a negative in the rest of Europe into an overall positive. https://electrek.co/2025/12/11/global-ev-sales-jump-21-in-20...

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