Tesla CEO and X owner Musk speaks at a Tesla product launch event in Los Angeles on October 10, 2024.
Tesla | Reuters
Tesla Announcement of fourth-quarter vehicle production and deliveries Report Thursday. Here are the key numbers:
Total Q4 2024 deliveries: 495,570
Total Q4 2024 production: 459,445
Total annual deliveries in 2024: 1,789,226
Total production in 2024: 1,773,443
The quarterly results represent Tesla’s first annual decline in annual deliveries, with the company reporting 1.81 million deliveries in 2023.
Tesla shares fell more than 4% in pre-market trading Thursday.
Analysts had expected Tesla to deliver 504,770 vehicles in the quarter, including 474,000 Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles, according to consensus estimates compiled by StreetAccount. Tesla sent some investors a company-compiled vehicle delivery consensus of 506,763, based on a survey of 26 analysts. A widely followed independent Tesla researcher (published as Troy Teslike) predicts deliveries of 501,000 vehicles.
Deliveries are the closest thing Tesla reports to sales, but it’s not clearly defined in the company’s shareholder communications.
Ahead of Tesla’s fourth-quarter report, Tesla shares surged at the end of the year, rising 63% for all of 2024. In mid-December, the stock record reachedexceeding the all-time high since 2021.
This is a huge shift from the first season, when the stock Plunged 29%It’s the worst period since 2022, with the company still facing falling sales despite price cuts and incentives for buyers. During the company’s first-quarter earnings call in April, CEO Musk He told investors that while he expects “sales this year to be higher than last year,” growth will slow to 38% in 2023.
The biggest Tesla news in the second half of the year is Musk’s role in the presidential election Donald Trump’s campaign. Musk, the world’s richest man, has spent about $277 million promoting Trump and other Republican candidates and has spent weeks campaigning in swing states.
Elon Musk talks to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump while watching the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket on November 19, 2024 in Brownsville, Texas, USA.
Brandon Bell | Reuters
Musk, who also runs SpaceX and xAI and owns social network X, has been named to co-lead a Trump administration advisory group targeting cuts in federal spending, personnel and regulations.
Sam Fiorani, vice president of automotive forecasting solutions at the industry research group, told CNBC in an email that Musk’s involvement in politics could “take his attention away from his core business.” However, he said the level of concern from investors or EV buyers won’t be reflected in Tesla’s numbers until the first quarter.
Until recently, Tesla was one of the few automakers producing electric vehicles at scale. The company now faces stiff competition from domestic automakers, including General Motors, Ford and Rivian as well as China’s BYD, South Korea’s Hyundai and European auto giants BMW and Volkswagen.
InsideEVs editor-in-chief Patrick George told CNBC that he believes Tesla still does many things better than other electric vehicle manufacturers, especially when it comes to charging networks. But the biggest operational challenge Tesla faced in the most recent quarter was “the specific work of being a car company.”
“Used cars pile up like mountains”
Tesla has invested in humanoid robot projects and chip development, and plans to produce dedicated robotaxis and launch driverless ride services by 2027. company, but most of its profits still come from car sales.
George said Tesla made a mistake by not “launching a more affordable electric vehicle in 2024,” adding that the company’s newest vehicle, the Cybertruck, was “piling up in used car lots.” Angle steel Cybertruck prices start at approximately $80,000.
Tesla’s sales in Europe fell sharply in the fourth quarter as rivals gained market share in the region.
According to registration data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), Tesla sold 283,000 vehicles in Europe from January to the end of November this year, an annual decrease of approximately 14%. Registrations in Europe fell to 18,786 vehicles in November from around 31,810 vehicles a year earlier.
The company’s business in China also came under pressure in the fourth quarter.
Fiorani said that while Model Y is the second-best-selling model in China, “its growth has not kept pace with market growth.” He said Model Y sales were up more than 5% as of November, but the country’s Overall sales of electric vehicles increased by 8%.
At the same time, Chinese brands such as BYD and Chery, Li Auto, Jietu, Leapmo and Alto are growing significantly faster than Tesla. BYD also builds factories outside China and exports a lot of them.
In North America, Tesla still dominates. The company offers a range of incentives and price reductioneven on its most popular Model Y SUV, boosted sales in the fourth quarter. Still, Tesla has experienced inventory buildup.
The company sent Cybertruck assembly line workers home for a few days in the fourth quarter, a sign it may want to avoid flooding the market with too many vehicles.
Looking ahead to 2025, Musk said during an October earnings call that Tesla expected to offer lower-cost self-driving cars in 2025, which would lead to “20% to 30% growth” in 2024.
watch: By the end of 2025, the electrification rate of China’s automobile market may reach 55-60%
