Business

Tesla’s annual EV sales decline for first time in over a decade

January 2, 2025, 8:33 am Modified date: January 3, 2025, 9:30 am

PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 16: Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of Twitter, Elon Musk attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre on June 16, 2023 in Paris, France. Elon Musk is visiting Paris for the VivaTech show where he gives a conference in front of 4,000 technology enthusiasts. He also took the opportunity to meet Bernard Arnaud, CEO of LVMH and the French President. Emmanuel Macron, who has already met Elon Musk twice in recent months, hopes to convince him to set up a Tesla battery factory in France, his pioneer company in electric cars. (Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images)

Tesla’s annual vehicle sales dropped for the first time in more than a decade despite a year-end push that sent deliveries to a record in the fourth quarter.

The Elon Musk-led company sold 1.79 million vehicles last year, falling short of the 1.8 million it delivered in 2023 and below analysts’ consensus estimate of 1.8 million.

GRUENHEIDE, GERMANY – MARCH 22: Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks during the official opening of the new Tesla electric car manufacturing plant on March 22, 2022 near Gruenheide, Germany. The new plant, officially called the Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg, is producing the Model Y as well as electric car batteries. (Photo by Christian Marquardt – Pool/Getty Images)

For the quarter ending December 31, Tesla delivered 495,570 vehicles, missing the projected 512,277 deliveries forecast by analysts.

Following the announcement, Tesla’s shares turned negative, dropping 1.9 percent as of 10:01 p.m.

This marks a pivotal moment for Tesla, as the company faces increasing competition in the electric vehicle market from both legacy automakers and newer entrants.