Tesla suffered its first annual drop in sales in four years, reports CNN, as competitive EVs from rival automakers flood the forecourts and CEO Elon Musk's "unpleasant" personality has buyers thinking twice. The stock is falling too, having lost about a third of its value in the last year.
CEO Elon Musk's electric car company reported it built 433,000 vehicles but delivered only 387,000. That's down from the 484,507 cars it delivered in the final three months of 2023, and it's also down from the 422,875 vehicle sales in the first quarter of last year.
Tesla has responded to increased competition by cutting prices. Although Tesla is more profitable than traditional automakers, the price cuts have been squeezing the profit margins that helped boost the stock. Investors' expectations that the company would grow sales in the future had also been supporting Tesla's lofty stock price, which made it the world's most valuable automaker.
Dan Ives, analyst with Wedbush Securities: "While we were anticipating a bad first quarter, this was an unmitigated disaster that is hard to explain away."
Previously: Tesla recalls nearly every car it has sold in America
