Tesla (TSLA) reported first quarter global deliveries that widely missed estimates, as demand issues clearly hit the EV-maker.
For the quarter, Tesla reported 336,681 deliveries vs. 390,342 estimated per Bloomberg consensus, making it the worst quarter for deliveries since the second quarter of 2022.
“While the changeover of Model Y lines across all four of our factories led to the loss of several weeks of production in Q1, the ramp of the New Model Y continues to go well,” Tesla said in a statement. The refreshed Model Y went on sale globally in March, with some analysts citing the changeover as a reason for depressed demand for its top selling vehicle.
As of 10:15:08 AM EDT. Market Open.
Tesla shares dropped nearly 4% in early trading.
Tesla also said it produced 362,615 units globally for the quarter and deployed 10.4 GWh of energy storage products, and would report first quarter earnings on Tuesday, April 22nd.
Tesla sales have been stalling across most of its global territories. Earlier this week, Tesla registration data in key European regions fell in March, another sign that sales are continuing to slide in one of its key markets as Tesla’s brand has also taken hit due to the right-wing political activities of CEO Elon Musk.
In France, only 3,157 Tesla EVs were registered in the country, down 36.8% from a year ago, per official data cited by Reuters. Norway saw only 2,211 registrations, down 63.9%. Sweden’s tally of 911 was only down 1%.
Tesla’s registrations are a close proxy for sales, which the company only reports quarterly and does not break out by region.
Also in Scandinavia, usually a stronghold of EV sales, Denmark’s Tesla registrations dropped to 593, down 65.6%, and the Netherlands saw 1,536, a drop of 61% compared to last year.
“With the current headwinds for TSLA across the industry, including protests at Tesla dealerships, violence seen at TSLA drivers around the country/Europe, and more Musk-related brand worries, this delivery number was a disaster for the bulls with continuous negativity around the TSLA brand,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a note Wednesday morning. “We are not going to look at these numbers with rose colored glasses … they were a disaster on every metric.”
Ives called on Musk to clarify his role with running Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and balancing his duties with Tesla, adding that Musk needs to “get his act together or else unfortunately darker times are ahead for Tesla.”
Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on X and on Instagram.