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Tesla reported a larger-than-expected decline in its quarterly deliveries in the first three months of the year, sending its shares down more than 5 percent in Wall Street trading Tuesday morning.
The company recorded sales of 386,810 cars, down a fifth from the 484,507 cars sold in the fourth quarter of last year and 8 percent less than the 422,875 cars it delivered in the first quarter of 2023.
It was expected to sell about 450,000 cars between January and March, which is typically a slower season for car sales.
The disappointing quarter was still enough for Tesla to reclaim the crown from BYD as the world's largest seller of electric vehicles, after its Chinese rival recorded a 42 percent decline in quarterly electric vehicle shipments to 300,114.
The Chinese group, which also sells plug-in hybrid cars that use a battery and a conventional motor, overtook Tesla in electric vehicle sales only during the last quarter of 2023.
Tesla has blamed the factory closures on charging problems and a recent attack on its Berlin factory by environmentalists in the poor quarter.
The sales decline was due in part to the early stage of the updated Model 3 production ramp at our Fremont plant [in California]and factory closures resulting from shipping diversions due to the conflict in the Red Sea and the arson attack at the Gigafactory Berlin.
The company's German factory was shut down for a week after a suspected attack on a nearby power pole affected power at the site.
Even before the Berlin incident, Tesla had already warned that this year would be difficult, due to increased competition. CEO Elon Musk said earlier that growth rates would be “significantly lower” than last year's levels.
But analysts still expect first-quarter sales to be higher than last year, when it shifted 422,875 cars in the first three months of the year.
Tuesday's stock price drop extended the Austin-based automaker's stock decline this year to 33 percent, making it one of the worst-performing stocks in the Standard & Poor's 500. With a market capitalization of $525 billion, its valuation is lower. From half its peak of $1.2 trillion was reached in late 2021 and continues to lag behind the rest of the “magnificent seven” US tech stocks.
In China, the world's largest electric vehicle market, Tesla faces increasing competition from local rivals, many of whom can undercut the company's prices with newer vehicles.
About 370,000 of Tesla's sales this quarter were of its Model 3 and Y, and only 17,000 were of other vehicles. The company makes the older S and
Although BYD's sales are also down, the company is expected to rebound, and may continue to surpass Tesla again in the coming months.
When including hybrids, along with cars powered by pure batteries and hydrogen, BYD posted quarterly sales of 626,263 units, up 13 percent from a year earlier but its slowest pace of growth since the second quarter of 2022.
