Tesla registered 2,932 new cars in Germany in October, up 290.9% from a year earlier, according to Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA). Spain was up 271%, Portugal 186%, Italy 94% and France 35%. The UK went the other way: just 282 Teslas, down 44.8%.
So which is it, a comeback or a slump? Mostly it’s the calendar. October is the first month of a quarter, and Tesla’s European deliveries pile up in the third month, when the ships from Berlin and Shanghai have landed and the delivery centers go into overdrive. October 2025 was also one of Tesla’s weakest months in Europe, which makes the percentages look huge.
Germany: big percentage, small slice
The KBA’s October release puts Tesla’s share of the German market at 1.2%. That’s after a September in which Tesla registered 12,552 cars and the Model Y was the best-selling car in the country, as Drive Tesla Canada noted. October was always going to be a fraction of that.
The year-to-date number is the one that matters more. From January through October, Tesla registered 47,742 cars in Germany, up 206.1%, for a 1.9% share. In 2025 the brand was having a rough year there. In 2026 it has roughly tripled.
There’s a catch, and it’s a familiar one. BYD registered 5,173 cars in Germany in October (2.0% of the market), and Leapmotor 3,661, up 288.6%. Year to date, BYD sits at 47,961, just 219 cars ahead of Tesla, per Teslarati and TeslaNorth. One strong December from either brand decides who finishes 2026 ahead. Keep in mind that BYD’s total includes plug-in hybrids, while every Tesla is fully electric.
The German EV market as a whole is in a very different place from a year ago. The KBA counted 94,086 new battery-electric cars in October, up 79.5%, or 37.0% of the 254,492 cars registered.
France, Spain, Portugal and Italy
France was Tesla’s biggest market of the month among those reported so far. Tesla registered 2,410 cars there, up 35.2% from 1,782, according to figures cited by EV. That compares with 9,038 in September. The French market grew 7% to 149,341 cars, and fully electric models took 41.5%. The Model Y registered 1,748 units, up 6.2%, but slipped to eighth among EVs, with Renault’s new Twingo on top. BYD registered 5,419 cars in France, more than twice Tesla’s total. Year to date, Tesla’s French registrations are up 117.1% to 47,609.
In Spain, the manufacturers’ association ANFAC counted 1,459 Teslas, up 271.2% from just 393. The Model 3 was the country’s best-selling electric car with 1,150 registrations. BYD, though, registered 5,306 cars across EVs and plug-in hybrids and ranked fifth among all brands.
Portugal’s ACAP reported 412 Tesla registrations, up 186.1%, and 9,673 for the first ten months, up 62.5%, Capmad reported. In Italy, transport ministry data showed Tesla up 94%, Gasgoo reported.
The Netherlands was the soft spot on the continent. Tesla registered about 340 cars there, roughly half of the 645 it registered in October 2025, in a market where EVs took a record 55.2% of sales.
The UK takes the month off
The numbers from Britain’s SMMT were the weakest of the lot. Tesla registered 282 cars in October, down from 511, for a 0.2% share. In September the Model Y and Model 3 had been the UK’s two best-selling EVs. In October neither made the top ten, which the Skoda Enyaq led with 1,568, according to Carwow.
The UK market itself rose 5.4% to 152,730, and battery-electric cars jumped 32.7% to 48,858, a 32.0% share and the highest of the year. BYD registered 6,065 cars, up 73.3%. Tesla still leads the UK EV market for the year to date with about 9.5% of it, according to the group New Automotive, so this looks more like a gap between shipments than a collapse.
It’s also why we’re reading these numbers with one eye on December. The pattern in 2026 has been thin first months followed by big third months: September in Germany, France and the UK proved that. Norway, Sweden and Denmark already reported their October numbers (our Norway story), and Tesla’s best October ever in Norway came mostly in the last six days of the month.
The EVX Take
Japanese brands should be paying the closest attention to this table. In the UK in October, Toyota fell 8.1% to 6,190, Nissan fell 9.1% and Mazda 30.6%, while BYD grew 73.3% and Chery-owned Jaecoo more than doubled. Tesla’s dip is a shipping gap. Japan’s carmakers are losing ground to Chinese EV makers in Europe every month. For Japan itself, the next data point is Friday, when the Japan Automobile Importers Association (JAIA) releases October import figures, including Tesla. Japan’s Model Ys come from Shanghai rather than Berlin, so they ride a different set of ships, but the same quarter-end rhythm usually shows up there too. Meanwhile, the regulatory side keeps moving for European owners: the Dutch RDW has just approved changes to Tesla’s assisted driving ahead of December’s EU vote, and Tesla China shipped 67,829 cars in October, many of them bound for export.
Sources: Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA), press release 44/2026; SMMT October 2026 registrations; Drive Tesla Canada; Teslarati; TeslaNorth; EV (eletric-vehicles.com), citing ANFAC, AAA Data/Auto Infos, PFA, BOVAG and RAI Vereniging; Gasgoo; Capmad (ACAP data); Carwow; New Automotive data via Euronext. National counts use different cutoffs and may be revised.
— The EVX News team
Featured image: a white 2026 Tesla Model Y Premium (facelift) photographed May 5, 2026. Photo: M 93 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped and resized).
