8:22 am, January 3, 2025
A strong final quarter was not enough to stop Tesla from enduring its first year-on-year sales decline for almost a decade in 2024, new figures have shown.
Documents published yesterday (Jan 2) revealed that the Elon Musk-led outfit delivered 1.79 million units throughout last year – 1.1% below 2023’s sales of 1.81 million.
Experts have put the slide down to a slump in overall demand for EVs in the US and elsewhere, marking the first yearly decrease for Tesla since 2015.
The result came despite Tesla going hard to incentivise take up of its cars last year, with offers including 0% financing, free charging and low-priced leases.
There was some good news however, with global sales rising 2.3% in the fourth quarter after a sluggish start to the year.
Tesla delivered 495,570 vehicles from October to December but the boost came with a cost with analysts predicting expected that the company’s average sales price to fell to just over $41,000 (£33,000) in the quarter.
The figure is the lowest level for Tesla in around four years, ahead of Tesla announcing its fourth-quarter earnings on January 29.
US analysts say that the company’s struggles can be put down to the fact that most early adopters of technology already have electric vehicles, and more mainstream buyers continuing to have concerns about range, price and the ability to find charging stations on longer trips.
Even the much-improved fourth-quarter fell short of Wall Street estimates, with analysts polled by data provider FactSet expecting sales of 498,000 vehicles.
Tesla shares fell 3% at the opening bell on Thursday, but shares are up more than 50% over the last 12 months, surging with the election victory of Donald Trump.
Falling sales early in the year led to once unheard of discounts for the car manufacturer, cutting into its industry leading profit margins.
Competition from legacy and start-up car manufacturers is also growing as they try to nibble away at the company’s market share.
Nearly all of Tesla’s sales came from the smaller and less-expensive Models 3 and Y, with the company selling only 23,640 of its more expensive models that include X and S, as well as the new Cybertruck.
