Tesla sales fell slightly in 2024, the first annual decline in the company’s history, as rivals in China, Europe and the United States introduced dozens of competing electric models, giving buyers more choice.
The company said on Thursday that it delivered 1,789,226 vehicles worldwide during the year, a slight decline from 1,808,581 in 2023. During the last three months of 2024, Tesla delivered 495,570 vehicles, up from 484,507 in the last quarter of 2023. The fourth-quarter sales were a record, according to the company.
Tesla shares, which have been buoyant in recent months, were down 4 percent in early trading on Thursday.
Tesla and its chief executive, Elon Musk, largely created the market for electric vehicles when it began selling the Model 3 sedan in 2017, arguably the first battery-powered car with the price, performance and range to attract large numbers of mainstream buyers. Tesla still accounts for nearly half of all electric cars sold in the United States.
But carmakers like BYD in China, General Motors, Kia-Hyundai, Volkswagen and BMW have challenged Tesla’s dominance, often with models that have newer designs and lower prices.
BYD sold 1.76 million electric vehicles in 2024, the company said on Wednesday, an increase from 1.6 million the year before. Unlike Tesla, BYD also sells plug-in hybrids that use gasoline and electricity, which have become popular in China. Last year, the company sold 2.49 million hybrids, a huge jump from 1.44 million in 2023.
Wall Street analysts had expected Tesla to report a slight increase, at best, in car sales for the year. During the first nine months of the year, Tesla sales fell in the United States, Europe and China, according to industry data and analyst estimates. Tesla sales declined even as overall sales of electric vehicles in the first 11 months of the year rose 25 percent globally, according to Rho Motion, a research firm.
But investors have been largely indifferent to the sales figures, focusing instead on Tesla’s efforts to develop cars that can drive themselves without human intervention, and on other products like humanoid robots that are not likely to generate revenue for many years. Tesla also sells batteries used by homes and businesses to store renewable energy.
Tesla shares have soared since early November as investors bet that President-elect Donald J. Trump will remove regulatory obstacles to self-driving cars, which Mr. Musk has described as central to Tesla’s future. Mr. Musk spent more than $250 million to help elect Mr. Trump and has become one of his most important advisers.
Tesla is “not making nearly enough money to justify the share price,” said Leonard Kostovetsky, an associate professor at the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College. “People are justifying it based on things that will happen in the future.”
Investors also do not seem to be concerned that Mr. Musk’s vocal support of Mr. Trump and right-wing leaders in other countries has alienated potential Tesla buyers, who tend to be people who lean left politically.
Mr. Trump has promised to dismantle federal programs that benefit Tesla, including subsidies for battery manufacturing in the United States and a $7,500 tax credit for electric-car buyers. Mr. Musk has said that removal of the incentives will hurt competitors more than it does Tesla.
Analysts expect sales of Teslas and other electric models to spike in the coming months as buyers in the United States rush to take advantage of the incentives before they disappear.
Tesla has promised to begin selling a car in 2025 for as little as $25,000, expanding the number of people who could afford an electric vehicle. But the company has not displayed a prototype, and Mr. Musk has provided few details about the product.
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