For the first time in almost four years, deliveries fell – by 8.5 percent in the first quarter to just under 387,000 cars, according to data published on Tuesday. Analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha had forecast more than 8 percent growth to a good 458,000 units last week.
Tesla is struggling with growing competition from industry newcomers such as smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi in China and the growing range of electric cars from traditional car manufacturers, including German ones. At the same time, demand for electric cars is weakening worldwide due to high interest rates.
Production losses in Germany
In the Teslafactory in Germany, an arson attack on the power supply and supply chain problems recently caused production losses. In addition to the preparations at the Fremont plant in California for the production of the new version of the Model 3, this was one of the reasons for the weaker sales, explained Tesla. Compared to the previous quarter, sales fell by 20 percent in the first quarter, while analysts had only expected a moderate decline of around five percent compared to the final quarter of 2023. Production from January to March amounted to a good 433,000 vehicles.
After years of rapid sales growth, this Tesla made the world’s most valuable car company on the stock market, the electric car pioneer is also struggling with headwinds. The effect of price cuts and discounts is now dwindling as Americans are only slowly refreshing their aging model range and will only come up with important new products next year. Analysts warned that the residual value of cars, which falls with prices, might harm the brand.
Skid marks also on the competition
TeslaCEO Elon Musk promised significantly slower growth this year. Analysts previously expected sales to increase by a fifth to 2.2 million cars for the year as a whole, following a good third increase in 2023. But the competition is also showing signs of slowing down. The Chinese car manufacturer BYD must maintain the position it achieved as the world’s largest electric car manufacturer in the final quarter of 2023 Tesla give it back. BYD sold a good 300,000 electric cars in the first quarter.
TeslaShares fell nearly six percent in premarket trading in response to the numbers. With a loss of around 30 percent since the beginning of the year, the paper is at the bottom of the US stock market index S&P 500.
