Tesla reports its first-ever annual drop in deliveries

Tesla has reported its first-ever decline in annual deliveries. The total number of deliveries for 2024 hovers at around 1.78 million, but the company delivered 1.81 million vehicles in 2023. Company shares fell by as much as seven percent at the news, but has since rallied a couple of points. This follows similar news from Q1 of 2024, but that was just for a single quarter. 

Q4 showed a slight uptick in deliveries, with 495,000 this year and 484,000 in 2023. However, analysts had predicted a more robust final quarter, according to reporting by CNBC. These analysts expected Q4 deliveries to be somewhere in the range of 506,000. Tesla doesn’t publish actual sales numbers in the US, so these delivery metrics are the closest we get.

Numbers are also down in Europe, with a 14 percent decline in 2024 when compared to last year. This is according to registration data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.

We don’t have a concrete reason as to why Tesla deliveries have started to falter, but there are a myriad of options. The company still hasn’t made a budget-friendly EV, instead focusing its energies on the oft-maligned Cybertruck and dreams of robotic taxis. Patrick George, editor in chief of InsideEVs, told CNBC that Cybertrucks have begun “piling up on used car lots.”

The company is also no longer the only EV game in town. It faces steep competition from rival upstarts like Rivian, but also legacy manufacturers. Entities like BMW, GM, Hyundai and Volkswagen have all begun cranking out electric vehicles in large numbers. Finally, there’s the Elon Musk of it all. 

Tesla’s stock still finished strong for the year, with a 60 percent increase from 2023. Shares actually hit a new high in December, dwarfing the previous all-time high from 2021.

In other news, I do not understand stocks. Ford, which sold 1.72 million vehicles in the US by Q3, is worth under $10 per share. Tesla is currently trading at $380 per share, all while selling significantly fewer vehicles than Ford and, well, just about every other major automobile manufacturer. Maybe rival stocks would shoot up if the big US auto companies started putting more effort into humanoid robots that don’t actually do anything. 

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