Axios: Tesla EV sales plunged 13% in Elon Musk backlash

[Dennis Donovan]

Axios - Tesla EV sales plunged 13% in Elon Musk backlash

Nathan Bomey
1 min ago



Tesla's vehicle deliveries plunged 13% in the first quarter, compared with a year earlier, as the company faces a backlash over CEO Elon Musk's political actions.

Why it matters: The datapoint marks one of the first significant indicators that Tesla's brand reputation is suffering from Musk's chainsaw-wielding leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency in the Trump administration.

Driving the news: The company delivered 336,681 vehicles in the first quarter, down from 386,810 in the same period a year earlier.

• Deliveries are considered a close proxy for sales.
• "This delivery number was a disaster for the bulls with continuous negativity around the TSLA brand," Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote today in a research note. "We are not going to look at these numbers with rose colored glasses...they were a disaster on every metric."

Zoom in: The sales drop came despite a ramp up in incentives, such as 0% financing deals.

• The company is facing a significant sales decline in key markets, such as Europe, California and China.
• "The time has come for Musk....it's a fork in the road moment. The more political he gets with DOGE the more the brand suffers, there is no debate," Ives wrote. "This quarter was an example of the damage Musk is causing Tesla."

/snip

[LizBeth]

1. We can do better than 13% surely.

[hatrack]

2. Registration data will provide more detail . . .

Tesla doesn't release their own sales totals, but the automotive press uses state-by-state registration totals (auto registrations are public records) from companies like Polk to track what's happening. It just takes a while.

[dutch777]

3. Me too, but its early. Bet that doubles in Q2. Here's hoping!

[Bengus81]

8. Q1 Financials due on May 12th at the latest. Can't wait to see that hot mess....

[tinrobot]

6. Down 13% from last year. Down 32% from last quarter.

[LizBeth]

17. Gotcha thanks. I saw this on FB, I will be sure to add that.

[uncle ray]

12. consider the big boycotts didn't really get rolling until March.

January sales were probably high based on the previous quarter. my WAG is that march sales were probably 30-40% down which averaged out to 13% for the quarter.

[littlemissmartypants]

14. WAG? ...

I'm guessing you don't mean wives and girlfriends so what do you mean?

[mahina]

15. I was about to ask the same question and then it dawned on me

Wild ass guess

[uncle ray]

19. wild assed guess

[LizBeth]

18. True that, for sure. A good reminder.

[RJ-MacReady]

4. wow!

This is catastrophic for Tesla lol. Good the sooner they are crushed into dust the better. Unless Musk sells all of his shares completely.

[quakerboy]

11. Tesla shareholders are screwed either way

As far as i can tell it was and is a meme stock, price built more on the cult of elon and bearing very little relevance to actual earnings and growth potential. With the implosion of his reputation, the price falls.. but without him the price falls.

[RJ-MacReady]

13. yeah I agree

We will see though. Tesla is now a toxic brand.

[samsingh]

5. i don't understand how it can be 13% only

who's still buying teslas?

[tinrobot]

7. Meanwhile, GM's EV sales up 94%, Ford is up 26%

It's not like people stopped buying EVs. They simply stopped buying Tesla EVs.

[poozwah]

9. ev

Electorate
Volatility

musk’s batteries appear to be discharging. perhaps americans are growing weary of the politics of theatrical performance that has served the party of actors, not action for far too long. later today, we may see further degradation of the maga EV if the oligarch’s vice president sticks by his pledge to raise taxes in the form of tariffs.

[quakerboy]

10. Thats all?

who is buying a tesla right now?

[LS_Editor]

20. That's a shame.

Thoughts and prayers.