Tesla stock rose Tuesday even as new data revealed that the electric-vehicle maker's European sales halved in April and as China's EV industry began a new price war.
Shares of Elon Musk's car company added 6.9%, closing at $362.89, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.1% and 1.8%, respectively. Stock markets rebounded after President Donald Trump delayed the implementation of tariffs on the European Union until July. Trump said last Friday that 50% levies on goods from the bloc would begin on June 1.
The market is part of the gain. So is CEO Musk. In a post on X, he said he's "back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms." Investors are happy to see him pivoting away from Washington, D.C., and back to his companies.
Musk and the tariff postponement allowed Tesla investors to shrug off more troubling sales data. Tesla's new car registrations in Europe tumbled 49% to 7,261 in April from the same period in 2024, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association. Sales in the European Union fell 53% to 5,475.
The company has sold 61,320 cars in Europe in 2025 through April, a 39% decline from the same period last year.
Tesla has had a tough time lately. Tesla sales dropped 28% in Europe in March. That dip was an improvement from earlier in 2025. Sales in January and February dropped 43%. Globally, Tesla sales dropped 13% year over year in the first quarter. It was the worst quarterly decline in the company's history.
Tesla brand challenges from Elon Musk's political involvement in the Trump administration and a Model Y update were blamed for the declines.
Investors are waiting for a rebound. April may have been too early for one. Musk, for his part, said he would step back from politics to focus more on Tesla, but that didn't happen until Tesla's first-quarter earnings on April 22.
The April data from Europe isn't the most recent number investors have. Wall Street tracks weekly sales from China. Tesla's Chinese sales in the first eight weeks of the second quarter declined by approximately 23% from a year ago. That likely wasn't because of Musk's politics, though. Instead, Wall Street cites trade tensions between the U.S. and China, which has led Chinese buyers to avoid American products.
The Chinese sales declines come as Chinese EV leader BYD announced price cuts on several models, something likely to be followed by other auto makers. BYD stock fell 1.7% in overseas trading. NIO shares fell 2.1%.
Coming into Tuesday, Tesla stock has fallen about 16% this year but has risen about 43% since the April 22 earnings report. With its earnings, Tesla reiterated its plan to launch a self-driving taxi service in Austin, Texas, in June. Investors hope that unlocks a new wave of earnings growth for the company.
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