NEW YORK (AP) — Sales of Tesla vehicles rose in the past three months in a possible sign recovery is afoot after a brutal year of boycotts over Elon Musk's politics but still fell short of expectations.
The company Thursday said sales rose 6% to 358,023, the first time in three years it posted a first-quarter increase from the year-earlier period. The positive figure follows a year of plunging sales due to an aging lineup and boycotts over Musk's right-wing
political stands.
Still, the strength of the recovery is unclear.
The sales in the three months through March were 6% lower than the 381,000 that financial analysts had expected, according to a survey by researcher FactSet. They were also way off their first-quarter peak going back to 2023. The company sold 423,000 vehicles in the first three months of that year, nearly a fifth higher.
Back then Tesla was the world's biggest electric vehicle maker, a title it held until the end of last year when it had to cede its position to rival Chinese maker, BYD.
Tesla stock was down sharply in early morning trading on the news, dropping 3% to $369 per share.
Possibly helping lift the figures were cheaper versions of Tesla models X and 3 introduced late last year. Details of models selling for less than $40,000 were not released but may come out on April 22 when Tesla reports quarterly earnings.
Financial analysts expect Tesla will report net income roughly doubled to 25 cents a share on $23 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.
The stock has falling along with the market this year, but is still up 30% from a year ago.
The valuation is sky-high, too. Stock of the carmaker is trading at 181 times expected earnings versus 22 times for the broad stock market.
That reflects a marketing victory of sorts for Musk who has been telling investors to focus less on car sales and more on the company's chances of dominating a future in which fewer people own cars, self-driving Tesla robotaxis are nearly everywhere and Telsa's Optimus robots are taking over for humans in factories and homes.
Before that future comes, if it comes, European and Chinese EV makers are stealing market share. Chinese maker BYD recently reported it had made 2.26 million electric vehicles last year versus Tesla's 1.64 million to become the new record holder.
