April 2, 2024
Today at
16:21
The American e-car manufacturer Tesla delivered far fewer new cars than expected in the past quarter. The stock tumbles up to 8 percent lower on Wall Street.
Investors are shocked by the weak delivery figures of the American car manufacturer Tesla
published on Tuesday afternoon. The company delivered 386,810 new electric vehicles during the first quarter of 2024, well below the analyst consensus of 449,000 vehicles sold and also 8 percent less than the 422,875 deliveries in the same period last year. Tesla usually publishes that data shortly after the end of the quarter, with the full results following in a few weeks.
It is the first time since the early days of the corona pandemic in 2020 that Tesla has had to admit a year-on-year decline in delivery figures. The company of major shareholder and CEO Elon Musk has suffered sabotage in its German mega-factory in recent months and adapted its production line at the Texas factory for the construction of the new Tesla Model 3.
Yet they appear hiccups not the main reason for the sputtering sales at Tesla, because other car makers are also confronted with sluggish sales figures.
Higher interest rates and weak consumer confidence in China have made many potential buyers cautious about large purchases. “I think the reason for the weak sales is a combination of high interest rates – which are very influential given that electric vehicles are on average about 10 percent more expensive than petrol cars – and the waning excitement around electric vehicles in general,” says asset manager Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management.
In addition to the impact of slowing global sales of e-cars, there is increasing competition from Chinese rival BYD. Musk warned investors earlier this year that Tesla is in a ‘transition year’, ‘between two waves of growth’. Due to all these troubles, Tesla has lost more than 30 percent of its stock market value since the beginning of 2024 (see graph). On top of that there will be a loss of more than 5 percent on Tuesday.
A plaster on the wound is that Tesla can once again call itself the world market leader in the electric car market. At the end of last year, the company was briefly overtaken by BYD, which sold more electric cars than its American competitor for the first time at the end of 2023. But in the first quarter of 2024, BYD sold ‘only’ 300,114 fully electric vehicles worldwide, while Tesla sold only 386,810.
