Tesla’s March quarter electric vehicle (EV) deliveries came as a shock to American analysts, with 18 of them missing the mark by a significant margin. The company, led by Elon Musk, reported delivering approximately 386,810 vehicles in the first quarter of 2024, a 20.2% decrease from the previous quarter and an 8.5% drop from the same period last year.
This figure fell far short of Wall Street’s average expectation of 454,200 vehicles, according to a poll of 18 analysts by Visible Alpha. Despite this substantial miss, Tesla’s share price only dipped around 4.7% amidst broader market concerns about bond yields.
However, Tesla’s performance still solidified its position as the leading producer of electric vehicles, with all 386,810 deliveries being pure EVs, surpassing BYD’s 300,114 sales of battery-powered EVs in the quarter.
The decline in Tesla’s global deliveries was attributed to production challenges, including the ramp-up of the updated Model 3 at the Fremont factory and disruptions caused by the Red Sea conflict and an arson attack at Gigafactory Berlin.
In China, Tesla delivered 220,876 vehicles from its Shanghai plant in the first quarter, a 3.7% decrease from the same period in 2023. Despite this decline, China-made vehicles accounted for 57.1% of Tesla’s global deliveries, the highest proportion since the first quarter of 2022.
Overall, Tesla’s unexpected delivery figures in the March quarter marked the first year-on-year decline in global deliveries since the second quarter of 2020, highlighting the challenges faced by the EV giant in a rapidly evolving market.