Demand for electric cars recovered in April, helping the European car market grow for the first time this year. But not everyone is benefiting from this. US automaker Tesla, led by controversial billionaire Elon Musk, fell further, with sales dropping more than 50 percent.

The European automaker's association ACEA said Tuesday that Tesla's sales figures fell to 5,475 vehicles in the European Union in April, a 52.6 percent drop compared to April last year. With 41,677 electric cars reportedly sold, manufacturers such as Renault, Volkswagen, and BYD have overtaken Tesla. More vehicles registered Overall, 1.3 percent more vehicles were registered in the European Union than a year ago, the industry association ACEA announced Tuesday.

A significantly higher number of buyers opted for a vehicle with electric drive: its sales increased by a third to 145,341 vehicles. One in three new cars in the EU is a hybrid vehicle. One in three new cars in the EU is now a hybrid vehicle whose battery charges while driving. If plug-in hybrids, whose batteries can also be charged at the socket, are included, the figure is a good 43 percent, more than pure combustion engines, which only have a market share of 38 percent.

Volkswagen leads the way. Among individual manufacturers, the Volkswagen Group, which includes brands such as Volkswagen, Skoda, Audi, and Porsche, remains the leader: the company sold almost 260,000 cars in the EU in April alone, 2.9 percent more than the previous year. BMW achieved a sales increase of almost 10 percent to 66,661 cars, while Mercedes sold 46,415 vehicles, 0.7 percent more than the previous year. Stellantis, which owns brands such as Opel, Peugeot, and Fiat, sold 1.1 percent fewer vehicles, while Toyota posted a drop of 8.6 percent.