{"id":76385,"date":"2026-02-04T11:29:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T14:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automotive.einnews.com\/article\/889330858"},"modified":"2026-02-04T11:29:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T14:29:26","slug":"tesla-uk-sales-plunge-in-january-as-chinese-rivals-race-ahead-new-automotive-data-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/04\/tesla-uk-sales-plunge-in-january-as-chinese-rivals-race-ahead-new-automotive-data-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"Tesla UK sales plunge in January as Chinese rivals race ahead, New Automotive data shows"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Tesla&#8217;s Struggles in the UK Market<\/h2>\n<p>Feb 4 (Reuters) &#8211; Tesla sold less than half the number of battery-electric vehicles recorded by Chinese rival BYD in the UK last month, data from New Automotive showed on Wednesday, pointing to mounting competitive pressures on the U.S. automaker.<\/p>\n<h3>Sales Performance Compared to Rivals<\/h3>\n<p>UK car sales of Tesla plunged more than 57% over the year earlier to 647 vehicles in January, the research group said. The decline was the steepest among major manufacturers, and far exceeded the 6.4% fall seen in the overall UK battery-electric car sales in the month.<\/p>\n<h3>Market Trends and Consumer Behavior<\/h3>\n<p>The Elon Musk-led company has been losing ground in the UK as its ageing line up grapples with intense competition from Chinese brands such as BYD and MG, with the CEO&#8217;s backing of far-right figures also contributing to the brand&#8217;s market share losses across Europe.<\/p>\n<h3>Impact of New Models on Sales<\/h3>\n<p>Tesla launched its cheaper Model Y and Model 3 variants to jump-start UK sales, but BYD pressed ahead, selling 1,326 battery-electric vehicles last month, up nearly 21% over the year earlier, New Automotive data showed.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. peer Ford led UK&#8217;s battery-electric vehicle market, more than doubling its sales in January to 2,271 units.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, total UK car registrations across fuel types fell 4.6% to 133,571 vehicles in January, the data showed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;British consumers are still moving towards cars with plugs, and away from those without,&#8221; said Tanya Sinclair, CEO, Electric Vehicles UK.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Month-to-month battery-electric vehicle figures can be volatile, especially after an unusually strong December and as manufacturers manage their early year product mix and compliance pathways, Sinclair said.<\/p>\n<p> (Reporting by Raechel Thankam Job in Bengaluru and Alessandro Parodi; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/blockads.fivefilters.org\"> <\/a><\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/blockads.fivefilters.org\/acceptable.html\"> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8230; last month, data from New <span class=\"match\">Automotive<\/span> showed on Wednesday, pointing to &#8230; pressures on the U.S. <span class=\"match\">automaker<\/span>. Sales Performance Compared to Rivals &#8230; over the year earlier, New <span class=\"match\">Automotive<\/span> data showed. U.S. peer &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76385\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}