In March 2025, a rumor began to spread online that Germany, one of the world's leading producers of cars, had shut down Tesla production. For example, someone posted on X on March 25, 2025, that Germany's move extended to the whole of the U.S. car industry (archived):
The claim also appeared on Facebook with similar phrasing. "3 MINUTES AGO: GERMANY makes bold decision to shut down Tesla and the U.S. auto industry – Elon Musk responds with a shocking message of only 7 words, revealing a hidden truth that has shocked the world," read most of the posts, some starting with "5 MINUTES AGO."
This claim appeared verbatim on multiple content farm websites. One was Celeby's, another was simply titled Sports News Blog. A third was called News and a fourth The Hub Feed. None of these sites was known as a reliable news source, and indeed no reputable news source had reported such a story. Celeby's, for example, included on its website a disclaimer that read:
We shall not be hold [sic] responsible for any content that appears on your Website.
Sports News Blog, meanwhile, stated "PETSUNITED WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY KIND ARISING FROM THE USE OF THIS SITE."
The fictional story spread as real reports multiplied that Germany's consumers were turning their backs on Tesla, which manufactures electric vehicles, due in large part to Tesla CEO Elon Musk's association with U.S. President Donald Trump. According to an online survey by T-Online, a large online news portal in the country, more than 94% of the 100,000 readers who responded no longer considered buying a Tesla car, citing Musk's "political escapades."
Perhaps more significantly, Snopes reviewed official new registrations for the month of February 2025 tracked by the Federal Motor Transport Authority (known as Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt, or KBA, in Germany) and was able to confirm that compared to February 2024, new Tesla registrations had dropped by 76%. Indeed, Tesla had sold 1,429 of its cars in February 2025, down from 6,038 the previous year. Already in January 2025, registrations had dropped 59.5% compared to January 2024.
This was the case even as registrations of electric vehicles in general in Germany had risen by 30.8% from 27,479 in February 2024 to 35,949 in February 2025, also according to the KBA.
More broadly, the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association reported on March 27, 2025, that new registrations across the European Union for Tesla cars had slumped by 49% in the first two months of 2025, to 19,046 units from 37,311 the year before, though the number of electric car registrations had rocketed by 28.4% across the region.