Tesla It just turned in one of the most disappointing first quarters for deliveries in a while, and the company is putting some of the blame on an arson attack at its factory in Germany and shipping disruptions caused by Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.
Tesla he said on Tuesday that it delivered 386,810 vehicles in the first quarter of 2024, down 20% from the 484,507 it delivered in the last quarter of 2023. Most importantly, Tesla shipped fewer cars than in the first quarter of 2023, meaning it was the first annual sales decline in three years.
Production was also down year-over-year, which Tesla attributed to the transition to building the new Model 3, as well as other disruptions. The arson attack shut down the Germany factory almost a weekand Tesla suspended production there for two weeks January because of the problems in the Red Sea. The company’s stock fell more than 6% in early trading.
These declines come just two months after Tesla warned that sales growth could be “significantly lower” in 2024 as it follows a successful 2023 fueled by price cuts. The company claimed in January that it is “between two big waves of growth” as it tries to ramp up production of the Cybertruck. It also has a lower-cost EV in the works, though plans for that have already changed, and the company said it’s trying to create an all-new production process to keep costs down.
The company also faces growing competition in China, where companies big and small are flooding the market with low-cost EVs. Bloomberg News reported last month that Tesla has cut production at its Shanghai factory as a result of slower sales growth in the country.
Tesla tried to pull a few tricks at the end of the quarter to boost sales, as it usually does. The company promoted a free one-month trial of its advanced driver assistance software (which it calls Full Self-Driving, even though it doesn’t make the cars autonomous). He also teased for most of March that he was going to raise prices from April 1st.
This story has been updated to include more information about the Tesla factory outages.
