In the first three months of the year Tesla reported deliveries of 336,681, a drop of 13% versus a year ago, missing estimates of 390,000 units. It was Tesla’s worst quarter for deliveries since the second quarter of 2022.

The concern for Tesla (TSLA) bulls is the sales drop continuing, with April sales figures coming in — and not looking good.

Tesla only reports sales or delivery totals on a quarterly basis, and does not break out sales across its critical regions. In order to view performance on a monthly basis and across regions, registration data is often used a proxy for sales, which is usually reported by national automobile authorities or research firms.

The first registration data sets to come through were in the UK and EU territories, and those sales drops turned out to be some of the worst.

UK Tesla registrations tallied only 512 new vehicles in April, per the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders auto trade group. That figure is down 62% from a year earlier.

Tesla’s UK underperformance follows weakness in other key regions. Germany’s KBA trade group reported registrations dipped 46% in the country to 885. The country is home to Tesla’s only European factory, Giga Berlin.

Tesla registrations also fell in key territories like France (down 59%), Denmark (down 67%), and Sweden (down 81%), per Bloomberg data polling national auto associations. The drops in April mirror tumbling European sales in March as well.

Weakness in the EU and protests at US Tesla showrooms recently follows CEO Elon Musk’s foray into the politics, resulting in some Tesla owners alienated by Musk and his right-leaning tendencies, and outward support of President Trump.

A different set of issues affects China, a huge engine for Tesla sales in the recent past and a territory Tesla is counting on for future growth, saw more weakness despite the fact Chinese citizens are mad for EVs.

Tesla China sold 58,459 vehicles in April, which includes EVs sold in China and those exported to other markets, down 6% versus a year ago according to data released by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) as reported by China EV blog CnEVPost. That figure is down a whopping 25.8% sequentially compared to March.

Looking at year to date including April, Tesla’s China sales and exports are down 18.3%. This comes as Chinese domestic competitors like BYD (BYDDY), Nio (NIO), and XPeng (XPEV) eat into Tesla’s sales by offering cheaper products with competitive feature sets, including software that is deeply integrated into the car’s HMI (human machine interface) that local customers demand.

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April data for the US, Tesla's home market, will come in early June via registration data provided by S&P Global Mobility.

Tesla bulls will argue a full month sales for the refreshed Model Y will boost sales in April, as they fell in March due to limited availability. However, demand may be an issue as Tesla just announced a cheaper version of the all-new Model Y in the US, the Long Range RWD version starting at $44,990, a $4,000 discount compared to the AWD version.

Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on X and on Instagram.

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