Tesla Faces New EV Sales Challenge In Europe From New Startup

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Last Updated on: 19th March 2025, 10:38 am

Tesla’s EV sales have taken a plunge as the automaker flounders upon the rocks of brand reputation gone sour, and other automakers are already darting in to take a piece of the pie for themselves. In the latest development, the British EV startup Perseus has just busted out of stealth mode with plans in the works to bring a premium, tech-focused compact SUV to Europe by 2027.

Everyone Wants A Piece Of The European EV Sales Pie

With 2027 just around the corner, you may be wondering how Perseus expects to pull off that tight schedule. That’s a good question. The answer lies in the EV supply chain and associated design and engineering services. Both are mature enough to enable an ambitious new player to swoop in and pull the pieces together in a relatively short period of time.

Perseus kindly sent an embargoed press release to CleanTechnica with the details. For starters, Perseus has plans in the works to license an EV platform from a yet-to-be-named European OEM group. “To speed up time to market and to de-risk execution, the company is engaging with a European contract manufacturer to build its first model to OEM-level quality production standards,” Perseus elaborates.

“This fully flexible and scalable production model will enable Perseus to reach market with maximum efficiency and avail itself of the most advanced manufacturing processes and industrialisation capabilities,” the company adds.

Putting The Pieces Together

In a similar vein, Perseus is also partnering with a leading automotive software firm, also to be named. If you can guess who that is, drop a note in the comment thread (hint: the keywords are Human Machine Interface Artificial Intelligence).

Rounding out the team, Perseus went to Italy to recruit a leading design and engineering firm. Perseus lists interior and exterior styling, pre-concept development, prototyping, serial engineering, testing and validation requirements among the tasks assigned to the Italian partner.

What do you think, do they mean the legacy automotive engineering firm Pininfarina? Maybe. Pininfarina unveiled its all-electric Battista hypercar back in 2020, and its wind tunnel has been put to use by other EV makers, including the US startup Aptera. The firm is also credited with contributing to a stylish launch for the new Vietnamese EV maker Vinfast.

Challenging Tesla On EV Sales in Europe

Pininfarina or not, Perseus is determined to take charge of EV sales in the premium brand category, partly by improving upon the business model popularized by Tesla, including direct-to-consumer online interfaces supplemented by brick-and-mortar “brand experience” facilities.

“Defined by attainable premium values, the Perseus SUV will combine inspirational and emotive design, groundbreaking technology, engaging performance and exceptional user experience with compelling value,” Perseus enthuses.

If that sounds rather ambitious, consider the source. Perseus CEO and founder Mohammed Yehya El Bakkali cut his EV sales teeth on his home turf of Morocco, where he co-founded the Anglo-Moroccan firm Atlas E-Mobility Group in 2020. Headquartered in London, the startup launched with the aim of producing the first BEV to be designed and engineered in Africa.

“By introducing superior-engineered affordable battery electric vehicles inspired by African design and identity and based on a proven established OEM architecture, we will appeal to customers worldwide,” Atlas asserts.

Last year, Atlas secured the services of Italdesign for styling, engineering, and modeling. If you’re thinking that firm could also be the running for the Perseus project, drop a note in the comment thread.

Morocco To Challenge Tesla For EV Sales In Europe

As for why Morocco, the African nation, has emerged as the top automotive exporter to the EU by value, edging out China for the title last September, the reason is simple. “The reason why we want to produce cars in Morocco is because we have the cost advantage,” El Bakkali told the news organization Auto Futures in 2023, in a discussion of the Atlas venture.

“Supply chain logistics, labour, materials, electricity are much more accessible at a lower cost. And also the government policy is supporting this. That’s the reason why we chose Morocco as a manufacturing hub, and it will help us with getting a product into the market as a cost efficient product,” he added, noting that Morocco hosts 250 automotive suppliers along with two OEMs producing up to 1 million cars a year.

For the near term, Atlas is focused on the African market, but the cost factor will kick in when the company turns its attention to Europe. The startup will be in a good position to scoop up EV buyers looking for an affordable, but still nice, zero-emission set of wheels, putting it in direct competition with Tesla on that price point while, in a classic pincer move, El Bakkali’s Perseus venture cuts it off on the premium side.

Meanwhile, Tesla’s efforts to trim costs in Europe will be boxed in by the choice of Berlin, Germany, for one of its gigafactories. For the record, the Berlin facility has been routinely in the news over labor and environmental issues. It was targeted by protestors in the spring of 2024. The protests continued into November and, of course, a fresh wave of actions cropped up this year.

More EV Sales Trouble For Tesla

Atlas and Perseus are not the only automotive competitors creeping up on Tesla in Europe. Last week, for example, the notoriously BEV-shy legacy automaker Toyota saw the EV sales light and introduced three new 100% electric vehicles to the European market. The company also unveiled a concept mini-car aimed at teen drivers and their safety-conscious parents, a segment long neglected by Tesla.

Tesla also missed the electric truck boat when focusing all of its energies on CEO Elon Musk’s pet project, the Cybertruck “pickup truck” and the forthcoming Semi Class 8 truck, skipping over EV sales opportunities as the fleet electrification movement inhales actual, functional pickup trucks as well as commercial vans, box trucks, and buses in addition to fleet passenger cars.

For that matter, by the time Tesla is ready to scale up Semi production, other automakers will be in position to give it a run for its money, including here in the US.

“In a sign of trouble to come, last year the heavy-duty truck makers Daimler Truck North America, Cummins’s zero-emission branch Accelera, and PACCAR (owner of the Peterbilt and Kenworth brands, among others) announced that their new joint venture Amplify Cell Technologies would begin making LFP batteries for electric trucks in Mississippi,” CleanTechnica reported last month. Toyota also launched its TERN Class 8 electric truck in 2024.

As for Tesla CEO Elon Musk, let’s just say it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

Image (cropped): The British startup Perseus has launched out of stealth mode with an EV sales strategy targeting car buyers seeking a stylish, tech-forward premium set of wheels without the Tesla baggage (courtesy of Perseus via email).