Tesla has BMW on its tail in race for British electric car sales

Tesla, the undisputed king of Britain’s electric car market, is within weeks of losing its crown to BMW.
Latest industry figures show that, after seven months of the year, sales of electric BMWs in the UK have risen to more than 22,000, firmly in the rear-view mirror of Tesla, the all-electric marque whose sales in the country this year have declined to 25,500.
Demand for BMW’s electric cars in the year date has almost already superseded the number it sold in the whole of 2023 and the marque’s new battery electric car registrations in Britain are up by about 70 per cent year-on-year.
All of which is in marked contrast with the situation at Tesla. Already in 2024, on a worldwide basis it has suffered its first two consecutive quarters of decline, with its sales down by nearly 5 per cent in the three months to the end of June. Its pace of decline in the UK is greater still: in the year to date, Tesla sales are down by 13 per cent, after a fall of more than 9 per cent to 49,500 in 2023, from a record high of 54,600 in 2022. Meanwhile, Britain’s electric market, despite having slowed, is growing at a rate of more than 10 per cent a year.
The Tesla Model Y, the American carmaker’s lowest-priced vehicle, was Britain’s third-bestselling car in 2022 across the whole market, including petrol cars. Last year the Model Y was still among the leaders, but had fallen to No 5 in the bestsellers. Thus far in 2024 it is not even in the top ten.
BMW’s race to get electric cars into the hands of British drivers has been led by sales of its BMW i4, a zero-emission executive car regarded as the German carmaker’s “Tesla-killer”, directly competing with the American company. Battery electric vehicles account for more than 27 per cent of all BMW UK sales so far this year, a sign of the manufacturer’s commitment to the push towards vehicles with zero emissions.
“BMW was an electric car pioneer with the launch of the BMW i3 11 years ago and has been developing the technology ever since,” a spokesman for the company said. “We now have a full electric vehicle model in every sector of the market and this, combined with the strength of the BMW brand, is proving to be appealing to buyers.”
Most electric car sales in the UK, as much as 85 per cent, go to corporate fleets, as company cars or are bought by employees via tax-efficient salary sacrifice schemes. That has played to BMW’s traditional strength as a leading player in the company executive car market.
Market commentators have suggested that the reversal of Tesla’s initial stellar performance in the British electric car market has been driven by greater competition and a price war as legacy carmakers get their acts together and as more disruptor brands come into showrooms, headed by BYD, of China.
Dealers say privately that demand for Tesla vehicles is under pressure. Potential buyers are said to have been put off buying the Model Y by talk that they are not acquiring a little US West Coast cool but instead are buying Chinese, as the vehicle is built in Shanghai. There is talk, too, that Teslas have lost their “premium” lustre as they are used more frequently in the urban taxi market, just as the Toyota Prius hybrid lost its one-time exclusivity as more found themselves into the hands of local cab drivers.
Then there is the “Elon factor”, the suggestion that some consumers may be showing antipathy toward an association with Elon Musk, the outspoken billionaire chief executive of Tesla, whose comment last week in relation to the riots in Britain that “civil war is inevitable” led to him becoming embroiled in a row with Sir Keir Starmer.
A spokesman for Tesla declined to give any guidance on whether the company is having demand or supply issues in the UK and refused to comment.