Some analysts saw Tesla's Model Y refresh, released earlier this year, potentially helping to offset any backlash from CEO Elon Musk's (inset) work for Doge – which formally finished at the end of May. Photos / Getty Images, AFP
Some analysts saw Tesla's Model Y refresh, released earlier this year, potentially helping to offset any backlash from CEO Elon Musk's (inset) work for Doge – which formally finished at the end of May. Photos / Getty Images, AFP
Year-to-date electric vehicle sales have rebounded strongly this year, new figures show – but Elon Musk’s Tesla is falling back. Overall vehicle sales in May edged up over May 2024.
Tesla’s fortunes picked up somewhat in May, thanks to the sales of its new Model Y, which hit the marketin April.
Some saw the electric vehicle (EV) maker’s New Year sales being depressed by buyers holding off for the Tesla Model Y (long the firm’s biggest seller) as much as a backlash against Tesla chief executive Elon Musk’s work for the Trump administration.
But while sales of the Model Y (from $70,145) did jump by a third over April, there were still only 50 new registrations in May, allowing Polestar’s Polestar 2 (from $59,990) to remain at number one here (Polestar is part of the Geely stable of brands distributed by Giltrap).
Overall EV sales year-to-date now stand at 2592, according to Motor Industry Association (MIA) data – a 52% increase on the year-to-date sales at this point last year.
Fully electric vehicles have perked up to account for 5.5% of total New Zealand new vehicle sales.
That’s a material gain over 2024’s 3.6%, if still well behind the 2023 heyday of 13.0%.
Keen price competition, driven by the arrival of new brands from China, has helped fuel the revival.
The Tesla Model Y’s year-to-date sales now stand at 229, a third down from the 336 it had clocked by this point in 2024 – which itself was a bad year for Musk’s firm in New Zealand.
The end of the Clean Car Discount and the introduction of Road User Charges for EVs saw Tesla New Zealand’s revenue crash from $373.6 million in 2023 to $143.5m in 2024. .
Tesla’s high water mark of New Zealand sales – 6980 vehicles in 2022 during the first wave of the Clean Car Discount – now seems some distance away.
More broadly, fallout from Musk’s support for US President Donald Trump, and various far-right parties across Europe, has appeared to impact Tesla’s global sales, which fell sharply in the first quarter (with the mitigating circumstance that some would have been waiting for the Model Y).
Source / Tesla market filing
On May 30, Musk formally ended his role as a special government employee driving the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).
The entrepreneur said he would now spend more time with his companies, which also include SpaceX and X, formerly Twitter.
Musk has also opened up something of a policy rift with Trump over the President’s omnibus “Big Beautiful Bill”. Musk labelled the legislation’s provision to increase the US debt ceiling an “abomination”.
“There is no change to tax incentives for oil & gas, just EV/solar [in the Big Beautiful Bill],” he posted on X last week.
Musk also retweeted another user post that said “slashing solar energy credits is unjust. But what’s more unjust is the damage that is done to people’s lives during storms and blackouts, because ultimately you can’t replace a human life”.
It remains to be seen if Musk standing up for green energy subsidies will be enough to restore – or at least neutralise – his standing with disillusioned Tesla customers.
Overall NZ sales stabilise
Overall new vehicle registrations in May 2025 totalled 10,251, a modest 65 units higher than May 2024, the MIA said.
But year-to-date figures continue to reflect a softer market, with 51,621 new vehicles registered to the end of May – a 3% decline compared with 53,352 over the same period in 2024.
The Toyota Rav4 (3806), Ford Ranger (3505) and Toyota Hilux (3438) are the three biggest-selling new vehicles in the year to date, with a big gap to the rest of the pack.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
