Tesla vehicles delivered

Germans drinking less beer per head, Teslas being delivered to driveways everywhere. The negative correlation is so on-the-nose for the decade it could be the cover photo of an annual macroeconomic report. The two graphs are not strangers, even if they have never met.

German per-capita beer consumption has slid by about 20 percent since the early 2000s as younger Germans drink less, drink differently, and substitute lower-alcohol options. Tesla deliveries went from a niche figure in 2015 to over 1.8 million vehicles in 2023 as the EV transition moved out of early-adopter territory. Both are generational shifts in consumer preference: one cohort is buying differently than the previous one, in two unrelated categories, in roughly the same window. Lifestyle change has a way of arriving everywhere at once.

When generations swap one habit, others tend to swap with them. The bar fridge and the garage notice the same things.