Tesla’s European Sales Were Dreadful. The Stock Held Up Anyway.

Through July, Tesla sales in Europe were down 34% year over year. (Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)

Tesla stock held up Thursday, despite more bad sales data from Europe. Investors just haven’t been all that concerned with falling vehicle sales lately.

Shares of the electric-vehicle maker traded as high as $353.55 before falling back, losing 1% and closing at $345.98. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively.

The early move higher might have come as a surprise after the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association released July sales numbers. Tesla sold 8,837 vehicles in the region, down 40% year over year. Through July, Tesla has sold 119,013 vehicles in Europe this year, down 34% from the 179,338 cars sold over the same span of 2024.

The problem isn’t the market. Overall, battery electric-vehicle sales rose 34% to 186,440. Tesla’s market share slipped to about 5% from 11%. So far this year, Tesla’s share of European EV sales is down about 8 percentage points, to about 8%.

Tesla sales were expected to pick up at some point this year, boosted by an updated Model Y—its best-selling vehicle. The sales recovery, however, hasn’t arrived yet.

Globally, Tesla sold 720,803 vehicles in the first half of 2025, down 13% year over year.

Investors would like to see higher sales. Tesla plans to introduce a lower-cost Model Y-type vehicle later in 2025, which could help, but investors have been far more concerned with AI lately.

Tesla launched an AI-trained self-driving taxi service in Austin, Texas, in June. Coming into Thursday trading, Tesla stock rose 46% between the company’s Oct. 10 robo-taxi unveiling event and the launch of service. That jump was worth some $350 billion in market value.

Through Wednesday, Tesla stock was down 13% this year, and up 70% over the past 12 months.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com