On Tuesday, April 2, Tesla announced that its sales had tumbled nearly 9% – the most in four years, according to Le Monde with AP.
The automotive company said it had delivered almost 387,000 vehicles worldwide in the first quarter of 2024, from January to March.
Comparatively, Tesla sold roughly 423,000 vehicles in the same period last year.
Also read
The company’s shares closed down 4.9% on Tuesday and have declined 32.92% year-to-date.
There is no real consensus as to why Tesla has seen a decrease in sales. According to Le Monde, the company blamed Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, which caused shipping diversions, as well as various plant shutdowns.
Also read
BBC, however, claims that some investors of the company are voicing concerns over its lineup, saying that it has “grown tired”, as well as CEO Elon Musk’s focus—or lack thereof.
Since Musk acquired X, formerly Twitter, in 2022, much of his time has supposedly been dedicated to the social media site. Recently, Musk established the artificial intelligence company xAI and announced the AI chatbot Grok, which is integrated with X.
Musk is also the CEO, CTO, and Chair of the spacecraft manufacturer SpaceX.
Tesla, Inc., was founded in 2003 by a group of engineers including Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. In 2004, Elon Musk became a major funder, contributing over $30 million to the company and eventually assuming leadership as CEO.
The company's first vehicle, the Tesla Roadster, introduced in 2008, broke the stereotype of electric vehicles as sluggish and unexciting, boasting impressive acceleration and a range that surpassed other electric cars of its time.