Tesla stock slides after Q4 delivery miss, first yearly sales decline
Tesla stock (TSLA) skidded to start 2025 following a big fourth quarter delivery miss and an overall down year for the electric vehicle maker.
For the quarter, Tesla said it delivered 495,930 vehicles globally, missing analyst estimates of around 510,400 as compiled by Bloomberg. This figure is above the 463,000 delivered last quarter and the 484,500 delivered a year ago.
For 2024, Tesla delivered 1.78 million vehicles, missing analyst estimates for 1.8 million and resulting in a total below 2023’s 1.8 million vehicles delivered. This is the first year-over-year decline for Tesla, hinting that new competition, demand, and global economic conditions may be hurting the company
Tesla reporting a year-over-year delivery decline is likely a shock to investors, as it was only a short time ago the company was reporting a 50% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Though Tesla warned last year that its "vehicle volume growth rate may be notably lower than the growth rate achieved in 2023,” due to preparations to launch its next-generation vehicle at Gigafactory Texas, investors most likely were not expecting an annual delivery decline.
Meanwhile, China’s BYD (BYDDY) reported global deliveries of approximately 4.3 million passenger cars in 2024. Though Tesla’s main rival in China said 2.5 million of those were hybrids, a reversal of years past, the deliveries still bring BYD’s pure EV total to around 1.76 million — knocking on Tesla’s door.
