Tesla's European Registrations Are Way Up Thanks To Evidently Short Memories

Good morning! It's Tuesday, June 2, 2026, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. This is where you'll find the most important stories that are shaping the way Americans drive and get around.

In this morning's edition, Tesla's sales have come roaring back in Europe as folks over there seem to have forgotten about their issues with CEO Elon Musk, a strike at a GM supplier could impact Silverado and Sierra production, China's BYD is showing interest in buying Maserati and Hyundai, Kia had a killer May thanks to strong hybrid sales.

If you'd asked me a year ago what would happen to Tesla in Europe, I'd say "nothing good." Well, there's a reason that I'm a journalist and not a fortune teller, because I'd have been dead wrong. You see, I assumed that folks over there would remember their hatred of CEO Elon Musk over his far-right politics for a long, long time, but that simply hasn't been the case. In actuality, new registrations of Teslas rose in several key European markets in May by numbers that are almost hard to believe.

New Tesla registrations increased by 655% year-over-year in France to 5,446 vehicles in May. Keep in mind, this was a place that not even a year ago was holding up effigies of Musk in protests across the nation. At the same time, sales were up 29% in Norway to 3,345 vehicles, up 136% in Denmark to 1,1750 vehicles, 113% in Spain to 1,690 vehicles, 349% in Portugal to 1,463 vehicles and 71% in Sweden to 858 vehicles. It all sort of boggles the mind, doesn't it? From Reuters:

Tesla's sales in Italy fell by 23.5% ​from last year to 654 vehicles but rose more than 15% in the first five months ​of the year from 2025.

Registrations of electrified vehicles in Europe rose about 21% in April from the prior year, making up more than two-thirds of total registrations, driven by policy support, subsidies and higher fuel costs pushing ​buyers toward lower-emission cars, data from European auto lobby ACEA showed.

While Tesla's market share erodes, its ​sales are being boosted by significant overall growth of the battery electric car market, particularly driven by accelerating ‌adoption ⁠in Scandinavia and a catch-up effect in lagging markets like Spain, said Rico Luman, senior economist at ING Research.

The Tesla data confirms an increasingly aggressive stance in the core EV market, supported by its pricing strategy and superior manufacturing capabilities, TP ICAP Midcap analyst Julien Thomas said.

[...]

Tesla, the world's most valuable automaker by market capitalisation, lost almost half of its European market share in 2025 due to a combination of growing competition, especially from Chinese brands, its lack of ⁠new models ​and a reaction to CEO Elon Musk's political stance.

In recent months, Musk has been far quieter when it comes to politics — especially since his unceremonious exit from the Trump administration. I'm sure that's helped. Still, it does surprise me that the average European consumer has a memory as short as ours. Apparently, we're not so different.

United Auto Workers union members at American Axle in Three Rivers, Michigan,walked off the job on Monday after their contract expired with the company's owners, Dauch Corp. Now, there's worry that the strike could impact production of the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra.

General Motors has about two weeks of axle inventory on hand to keep building trucks, according to two sources familiar with the matter, but after that, it could run into some real issues. GM says it is closely monitoring the situation and "assessing any potential impact." From Reuters:

A Dauch spokesperson called the work stoppage "disappointing" ​in a statement.

"We remain committed to negotiating with the ​union in good faith and hope to promptly reach a fair agreement," ‌the ⁠spokesperson said.

[...]

The Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks, which are made at factories in ​the U.S., ​Canada, and Mexico, ⁠are GM's top sellers, accounting for nearly one-third of the company's U.S. vehicle sales.

The UAW ​is pushing for wage increases after employees made ​sacrifices ⁠to keep the plant open in 2008, according to the union. Top wage earners can make $22 an hour, which is down ⁠from ​as much as $29 an hour in ​2008, the union said.

In early May, workers voted 98% in favor of authorizing ​a strike if needed.

Listen, it's a simple fix. If Dauch wants its workers to go back on the job, all it has to do is pay them what they're worth. It's actually the easiest thing in the world. Dauch reported $5.84 billion in profit in 2025. Yes, it took on a $19.7 million loss, but when you look at the fact that its CEO, David Dauch, was given an $11.5 million pay package, it's easy to see why.

China's BYD is apparently toying with the idea of picking up some struggling European ultra-luxury brands like Maserati. At the same time, it's in talks with Stellantis and other legacy automakers about acquiring idled or spare manufacturing capacity. These methods would serve as a two-pronged strategy for deepening BYD's roots in Europe and bypassing EU tariffs.

Executive Vice President Stella Li has said in the past that brands like Maserati are "very interesting" to BYD, but it has yet to take any real action, and she didn't specify any other brands the company might be considering.  From Automotive News:

High tariffs in the U.S. are also shifting Chinese automakers' international focus. In late 2025 and early 2026, the European Union remained a top destination for Chinese EVs, accounting for roughly 28 percent of total battery EV exports, according to the China Passenger Car Association.

If BYD were to take over Maserati, it would have a well-known Italian and European brand at its disposal, Stefan Bratzel, the director of CAM, told Automotive News Europe. However, while this isn't "unrealistic," he said, "I can't see it happening at the moment."

Automotive analyst Ferdinand Dudenhöffer shares his skepticism. "Such information looks very good in a press release, but economically speaking it makes little sense," he told Automotive News Europe.

BYD's ambitious European plans face a significant obstacle: its deteriorating financial performance in China's cutthroat EV market.

Dudenhöffer points to BYD's "very sad" first quarter results. First-quarter net profit tumbled 55.4 percent to 4.1 billion yuan ($605 million) while sales fell 12 percent to 150.2 billion yuan.

For its part, Maserati has said it's not for sale, but as everybody knows, there's always a number. The Italian automaker said it's currently assessing several tech options, including cooperating with Chinese partners. It remains to be seen what'll happen, but someone needs to help Maserati out, that's for sure.

Hyundai and Kia were back on track in May, thanks mostly to strong-as-hell hybrid sales. Hyundai's sales rose 3.5% to 87,468 vehicles, and Kia's were up 1.9% to 80,502 vehicles last month. It's good news for the automaking giant that saw sales decline in March and April. 

Hybrids were the big story here. They were up 90% at Hyundai and a whopping 179% at Kia in May. They continued to outperform for both companies as folks around the country deal with extremely elevated gas prices. From Automotive News:

Many of Hyundai's core models posted solid or double-digit gains in May: Elantra, up 7 percent; Sonata, up 39 percent; Tucson, up 3 percent; Santa Fe, up 2 percent; Palisade, up 17 percent; Ioniq 5, up 28 percent; and the new Ioniq 9, up 279 percent.

[...]

And there are signs the electric-vehicle market is starting to settle after briefly collapsing when up to $7,500 in federal tax credits toward EV purchases expired in September.

Hyundai said its EV sales rose 10 percent and set a May record. At Kia, EV demand also rose, with slightly weaker EV6 volume offset by higher sales of the new EV9.

Genesis posted its 20th consecutive monthly U.S. sales gain in May, with volume rising 2.5 percent to 6,890 on higher volume for its topselling GV70 crossover and the G70 sedan.

Kia said that three of its models actually set monthly sales records in May. The Telluride was up 18%, the Carnival was up 16% and the Sportage was up 6%.

History.com

I haven't thought about Sepp Blatter in 11 years, but wow. I forgot how much I missed hearing his name in the news. It's really true. You don't know what you've got 'till it's gone. If you're wondering what he's been up to recently, well, he's called for a boycott of the 2026 World Cup because of President Trump's immigration and deportation practices. Yeah, it's that bad. If you want to learn more about Blatter's FIFA scandal, head over to History.com.

Friends, I come to you on this Tuesday with some more good news, but I really don't think it'll last much longer. Gas prices have continued to tumble from the 2026 high we saw last month, but with news that the U.S. and Israel's peace deal with Iran is all but falling apart (and the report that Trump called Bibi "f*****g crazy" on the phone yesterday), I've got a real feeling we're on the brink of the Strait of Hormuz being re-blocked and gas prices shooting back up. At least  WTI Crude Oil futures and Brent Crude prices are also holding steady-ish at slightly lower prices, currently sitting at $92 and $95, respectively, at the time of publication.

Here's where national average prices stand right now, according to AAA:

AAA

This all breaks down to the average price of a gallon of regular gas dropping another 3 cents overnight, so it's currently sitting at $4.29, according to AAA. We're now down 27 cents from the 2026 record that was set back on May 21, when gas hit $4.56 per gallon. Enjoy it while it lasts, I suppose.

For the record, I'm not miserable now, I just like listening to Morrissey complain. Few do it better than him. He's really an inspiration to the whiner in all of us, and I think about him every time I wanna throw a little tantrum or feel sorry for myself.