Deutsche Telekom has decided to temporarily remove Tesla vehicles from its company car catalog—not as a political statement against Elon Musk, but simply because employee interest has dropped significantly. This adjustment was made during the regular quarterly review of the company’s internal vehicle offerings.
Olga Nevska, Managing Director of Telekom Mobility Solutions, shared this development with the German automotive magazine Automobilwoche. “We do have Teslas in our fleet,” she stated, “but currently we’re not offering any new Tesla models to our employees.” According to Nevska, the decision is based purely on insufficient demand. “We review our catalog every quarter and either add new brands or remove those that are no longer relevant,” she added.
Nevska oversees Telekom Mobility Solutions, a subsidiary responsible for managing around 23,000 company vehicles for Deutsche Telekom. Since 2023, her department has been exclusively procuring fully electric cars. In a previous interview with electrive LIVE, she described how the company’s fleet strategy evolved from its early electric vehicle purchases in 2019. She noted that employees have become more receptive to EVs, the variety of models has increased, and fears about driving range have diminished. “Initially, we offered EVs as replacement vehicles mainly for holiday use. They were rarely booked,” she recalled.
Tesla’s removal from Telekom’s fleet offering is certainly a blow, especially considering the decision didn’t come from top management, but was instead influenced by the preferences of employees. Nevska explained that three key criteria determine whether a brand remains part of the fleet: internal demand, cost-efficiency, and aftersales support. Tesla reportedly fell short in aftersales service, and with employee interest waning, it failed to meet the internal threshold.
Telekom was actually one of the first large corporations in Germany to adopt Tesla vehicles back in 2019 and 2020, mainly due to their superior range at the time. The company’s openness to electric mobility has played a pioneering role in corporate fleet electrification across the country.
That said, this isn’t a permanent goodbye to Tesla. The brand may find its way back into Telekom’s catalog in the future. The fleet offerings are reassessed every quarter, so if demand rises or aftersales services improve, Tesla could return to the lineup.
In the meantime, the focus remains on offering electric models that better meet employee preferences and operational standards. This move reflects how employee choice, not corporate politics, can play a decisive role in shaping company policy—even for big names like Tesla.
