Tesla’s US sales were down 5% this year, while all EV sales rose 17%

Tesla faces steep competition and an aging lineup, in addition to protests aimed at CEO Elon Musk.

5/28/25 9:55AM

When Bloomberg asked Tesla CEO Elon Musk last week about declining sales in Europe, he responded, “Europe is our weakest market. We’re strong everywhere else.”

That wasn’t exactly true then and it’s not true now.

Data then showed that, in addition to plummeting European sales, China sales started off poorly in the second quarter. Analysts estimate that the quarter will end down, too, in China, Tesla’s second-biggest market.

Now we have registration from Tesla’s biggest market, the US, and sales appear down there as well.

New Tesla registrations in the US were down 5%, or -6,964 vehicles, in the first three months of 2025, according to data from S&P Global Mobility. Meanwhile, EV sales overall grew by 17%, or more than 40,000 vehicles over last year. S&P analyst Tom Libby noted that there’s a lot more competition in the EV space this year, with at least 70 EV models in the running. Tesla is also contending with an aging lineup of vehicles, having abandoned plans for its long-awaited low-cost car.

Musk’s forays into right-wing politics as the leader of a brand that sells left-wing cars is also likely not helping.

The confluence of poor sales data from around the world this year makes Musk’s claims that Tesla’s sales have turned around and demand has rebounded hard to swallow, though it’s possible that in the interim between when data becomes available publicly, things have flipped. We’ll wait for the data to believe it.

Rani Molla6h

“Tesla killer” Slate Auto switches CEOs ahead of launch later this year

Just months before the expected launch of its $25,000 truck, so-called “Tesla killer” Slate Auto has swapped out its CEO. Former Amazon Marketplace Vice President Peter Faricy is the new leader of the Jeff Bezos-backed company, while the previous CEO, Chris Barman, one of the electric truck maker’s first employees, is now president of vehicles.

“ The marketplace component is really important to us. Being able to understand how to sell things in the 21st century is really important because we're gonna be direct to consumer, without dealerships,” Jeff Jablansky, head of communications at Slate, said of the change. “The way Chris put it is, we are adding horsepower at a critical moment when people are going to be able to actually order their trucks.”

In a social media post just last month, then CEO Barman said the company would unveil the exact price tag for its Blank Slate, which goes on sale late in 2026, in June, but reaffirmed it will be in the mid-$20,000s.

Bezos-backed Slate Auto hires new, ex-Amazon CEO

Rani Molla9h

Amazon’s autonomous ride-hailing service now testing in 10 markets

Amazon self-driving subsidiary Zoox announced Monday that it’s testing in two additional markets, Phoenix and Dallas, bringing its total to 10 US markets. The company will begin by mapping select neighborhoods using retrofitted Toyota Highlander SUVs with safety drivers behind the wheel, before progressing to autonomous testing and eventually rolling out its steering-wheel-less, purpose-built vehicles for public users.

The service is currently available to the public in Las Vegas and to select users in the Bay Area, where it’s served 300,000 riders.

Zoox is also opening a third “Fusion Center” facility, in Arizona after Las Vegas and the Bay Area, from which it will provide assistance and coordinate operations for its fleet.

Zoox’s expansion comes as Alphabet’s Waymo recently reached its 10th public market and as Tesla’s Robotaxi says it plans to open in six new markets in the first half of the year.

Zoox is expanding and preparing to bring service to Dallas and Phoenix | Zoox

The service is currently available to the public in Las Vegas and to select users in the Bay Area, where it’s served 300,000 riders.

Zoox is also opening a third “Fusion Center” facility, in Arizona after Las Vegas and the Bay Area, from which it will provide assistance and coordinate operations for its fleet.

Zoox’s expansion comes as Alphabet’s Waymo recently reached its 10th public market and as Tesla’s Robotaxi says it plans to open in six new markets in the first half of the year.

Jon Keegan9h

Microsoft will use Anthropic’s Claude to power “Copilot Cowork”

Microsoft is partnering with Anthropic to power its new agentic offering, Copilot Cowork. The AI world is abuzz with agents that can do your busywork for you, and Anthropic’s Claude Cowork is one of the most prominent and capable offerings in the field.

The tech giant wrote:

“Working closely with Anthropic, we have integrated the technology behind Claude Cowork into Microsoft 365 Copilot. It is this multi-model advantage that makes Copilot different. Your work is not limited by one brand of models.”

Microsoft listed some examples of how Copilot Cowork could help with common tasks such as rescheduling meetings, sending emails, researching companies, working with spreadsheets, and making presentations.

It’s worth stepping back to note how wild it is that Microsoft, the productivity software behemoth that has absolutely dominated the business world for decades, has had to turn to an AI startup to control those apps.

Copilot Cowork: A new way of getting work done | Microsoft 365 Blog

“Working closely with Anthropic, we have integrated the technology behind Claude Cowork into Microsoft 365 Copilot. It is this multi-model advantage that makes Copilot different. Your work is not limited by one brand of models.”

Rani Molla9h

China’s smartphone slump could strengthen Apple

China smartphone shipments fell 22% year over year in January, according to a new Bernstein research note. The drop was partly due to the timing of Lunar New Year and tough comparisons with last year, when government subsidies boosted sales, but rising memory costs are also weighing on demand — especially in the lower-end segment dominated by Chinese brands.

Low-tier shipments fell 37%, hitting brands like Honor and Vivo particularly hard, while high-end sales from Apple and Huawei held up better. Overall average selling prices rose 13%.

That could be good news for Apple, which sits at the more price-insulated upper end of the Chinese market and has been making a comeback in the country. Apple’s market share grew to 18% in January — in line with Huawei — from 14% a year earlier, while the rest of the market fell 2 percentage points to 65%.

With its scale and industry-leading margins, the iPhone maker is better positioned to absorb higher memory costs. To wit: it recently unveiled the $599 iPhone 17e, which keeps its entry price steady with its predecessor while doubling storage.

Rani Molla

10h

Alphabet ties a portion of Sundar Pichai’s pay to Waymo for the first time

By tying up to $260 million of its CEO’s pay to Waymo, Alphabet is making clear the autonomous vehicle unit is no longer just an “Other Bet.”