On 12 June 2026, Elon Musk became the first trillionaire in history. What made it possible was the stock-market flotation of his space company SpaceX, which went public at an issue price of 135 US dollars per share and a valuation of close to two trillion dollars — the largest IPO of all time. On its very first day of trading, the stock opened under the ticker SPCX at around 150 dollars and closed roughly 19 per cent above the issue price. Musk's fortune duly climbed past the one-trillion-dollar threshold, more than three times that of the next-richest person.
It is a moment that makes headlines — and one that carries a curious irony. In the public imagination, after all, Musk got rich with Tesla, the company that a good decade ago turned the electric car from an eco-niche product into a status symbol. Yet just as the Tesla founder ascends, on paper, to being the richest person on Earth, his car brand is coming under mounting pressure in Europe. The stock-market frenzy around SpaceX and the reality of the mobility transition on Austrian roads tell two very different stories. Anyone who wants the full background to that leap in wealth will find it in our analysis of Musk's rise to become the first trillionaire. Here we turn to the other, more down-to-earth question: where does electric mobility actually stand, a good halfway through 2026?
The transition is happening — slowly, but steadily
The sober answer: it is making progress, though nobody could call it a breakthrough. In Austria, according to the federal e-mobility association BEÖ (Bundesverband Elektromobilität Österreich), around 6,600 purely electric cars were newly registered in May 2026, up a good 21 per cent on the same month last year. Battery-electric vehicles accounted for just under 26 per cent of all new passenger-car registrations. Over the first five months of the year, new registrations added up to around 31,000 EVs, roughly 24 per cent of all new cars.
That is solid growth, but no sure thing. One in four new cars in Austria runs purely on electricity — one in four, not one in two. The bulk of new registrations still goes to combustion engines and hybrids. The picture across Europe is similar: according to the European Alternative Fuels Observatory, the continent began 2026 with a BEV market share of around 20 per cent, while the overall market is, if anything, shrinking. Electric mobility is thus also growing in percentage terms because combustion-engine sales are falling — an effect that makes the figures look better than they are in absolute unit numbers. The mobility transition is also broader than the passenger-car market: the revival of the night train for holiday travel belongs to the same picture.
Tesla loses ground, China closes in
While Musk triumphs on the stock market, Tesla's operating business is struggling — in Europe, of all places. According to industry trackers such as Electrek and the Chinese portal CnEVPost, Tesla registrations in Europe slumped by just under 28 per cent across the full year 2025, with dramatic declines in individual markets such as Germany and the Netherlands. There were signs of a recovery in early 2026 — in April, Tesla registrations across Europe rose sharply again — but it was not enough to fend off the new rival.
That rival is called BYD. In the spring of 2026, the Chinese manufacturer overtook Tesla in European new registrations for the first time and held that position for several months. In February 2026, BYD recorded around 18,000 registrations across Europe, an increase of more than 160 per cent within a year — putting the group narrowly ahead of Tesla for the first time. In the months that followed, the gap widened: in April, for instance, BYD reached roughly double Tesla's volume across Europe. BYD's market share in the EU has risen within twelve months from well under one per cent to around two per cent. What is happening here is more than a change of badge: it is a shift in the balance of power in the global car industry — one that Austrian buyers, too, can feel in dealers' showrooms.
While Elon Musk becomes a trillionaire on Wall Street, the future of the electric car has long been decided by a far more mundane question: what does an EV cost at the till?
The price war decides — not the share price
This is precisely where the real lever of the mobility transition lies. The rise of the Chinese manufacturers has a hard economic reason: they are simply cheaper. With the Dolphin Surf, BYD brought a small electric car to Europe that, depending on the market, is available from around €23,000. A comparable Tesla Model 3, by contrast, starts at about €41,000. In several markets, the Chinese volume models come in well over €10,000 below Tesla's price level.
For the broad acceptance of the electric car, that matters more than any stock-market record. According to market watchers, close to ten battery-electric models under €25,000 should be available in Europe by the end of 2026 — from Renault and Volkswagen to Hyundai and, indeed, BYD. Only when the electric car reaches price parity with the combustion engine does it become the obvious choice for average households. Until then, the premium remains a real hurdle, especially in a country like Austria, where many households drive their car for years and do the sums carefully before buying.
A subsidy landscape in flux
In Austria, subsidy policy has shifted noticeably. The classic state purchase grant for new private EVs, long part of the federal programme, has expired according to several industry sources, after the funding pot was exhausted. A direct federal purchase premium for private individuals no longer exists in that form. Reports are circulating about a possible revival or family-linked premiums — but these claims are uncertain and partly drawn from the German context, so they should be treated with caution here. Anyone planning a concrete purchase should check the current position with klimaaktiv mobil, the government's climate-mobility programme, or the Austrian motoring club ÖAMTC.
The direction of travel, however, is clear: the emphasis of state support has shifted from purchase incentives towards infrastructure and tax advantages. Purely electric cars remain exempt from the NoVA, Austria's standard fuel-consumption levy on new cars, which saves several thousand euros at purchase. In 2026, the mobility transition is being supported through the umbrella programme eMove Austria, with funding in the mid-hundreds of millions of euros, a substantial share of which flows into charging infrastructure.
Charging and resale value: the underrated levers
On charging, Austria has caught up. According to the BEÖ, there were more than 36,000 public charging points at the start of 2026, concentrated in Lower Austria, Upper Austria and Tyrol. In Vienna alone, around 4,000 publicly accessible charging points are available, most of them operated by the municipal utility Wien Energie; the network is due to be expanded by at least 1,000 further charging stations from 2026. The federal government's stated goal is that by 2030, around 95 per cent of the population should be able to reach a fast-charging point within ten kilometres. For city dwellers without their own garage, however, charging remains the biggest practical hurdle.
The touchiest subject of all may be resale value. Used electric cars lose value at an above-average rate, according to industry analyses: three-year-old BEVs fall on average to roughly half of their original list price, while petrol and diesel cars hold steadier at around 60 per cent. The main reason is uncertainty about battery condition — the so-called state of health — which accounts for a large share of a vehicle's value. As long as buyers struggle to judge the battery, the used-car market remains fragile — and a weak used-car market, in turn, drags on new-car sales, because the depreciation is bought along with the car.
Conclusion: the transition doesn't need a trillionaire
The SpaceX flotation makes Elon Musk richer than any human has ever been. For the mobility transition in Austria, that is a footnote. Whether the electric car prevails will not be decided on Wall Street, but by price tags, charging stations and residual-value tables. And the mobility transition does not end with the car anyway: cycling through the winter is part of it too. The figures for 2026 paint a cautiously positive picture: steadily rising registrations, a densifying charging network, a growing range of affordable models. At the same time, the brakes are real — expiring purchase premiums, steep depreciation, and Chinese competition that is upending the familiar market order. In 2026, electric mobility has grown up: no longer a hype, no longer a promise of salvation, but a sober piece of industrial and everyday policy. And perhaps that is better news than any trillion-dollar record.