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Tesla suffers worst quarter since 2022 as deliveries tumble
- Mr_Bees69 2y agogift link?
- connicpu 2y agoThat's what happens when a CEO associates themselves tightly with their brand and then publicly takes extremely polarizing political action that half the voter base considers antithetical to their values.
- actionfromafar 2y agoHalf, or more, of their Total Addressable Market, even.
- IgorPartola 2y agoThere was a comedian talking about how Musk is now selling trucks after selling eco friendly sedans to anyone who will buy one. People who drive Real Manly Trucks in this country generally don’t jive with the eco friendly crowd so he has to act more like them. Of course that’s a humorous take, not a serious one but I do wonder how much of that is a part of his thinking. I do think there is a chance he just runs Tesla into the ground and there definitely is an opportunity for another company to come in and position themselves as quality electric vehicles without the politics.
- square_usual 2y agoI don't buy the idea that Musk is doing this as some sort of branding play. I think he genuinely believes in what he says; his beliefs have just shifted over the past few years, notably after COVID.
- toomuchtodo 2y agoHis trans daughter Vivian is what flipped him. "Woke mind virus." For someone trying to have as many kids as possible (allegedly boys prioritized) and the controlling personality type, he takes great offense, as if this is a mortal sin against him. He also does not act in a healthy way when his attempts to exert control over others fails. Haven't heard much from him since his $25M in Wisconsin didn't buy him the election. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/08/13/elon-musk-s-ambition-repopulating-the-planet-and-destroying-the-woke-virus_6714239_4.html https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/08/13/e... | https://archive.today/LsqF9 https://archive.today/LsqF9 https://www.wsj.com/tech/elon-musks-quest-to-make-men-great-again-aee1e35d https://www.wsj.com/tech/elon-musks-quest-to-make-men-great-... | https://archive.today/BgTwJ https://archive.today/BgTwJ
- square_usual 2y agoI'm sure that's part of it, but I think the first sign was in 2020 when he basically went to war with California over their shelter in place orders. Remember the "Zero new cases by the end of April" prediction?
- toomuchtodo 2y agoThere still remains substantial value destruction ahead of us.
- palmotea 2y ago> That's what happens when a CEO associates themselves tightly with their brand and then publicly takes extremely polarizing political action that half the voter base considers antithetical to their values. More generally: this is what happens when someone in power gets so arrogant they totally lose sight about what they can and can't do, and what the consequences of their actions will be. I'm reminded of this (about Musk), which is probably the root cause of his arrogance: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-kara-swisher.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/opinion/ezra-klein-podcas...: > He has people around him who are just enablers. All these Silicon Valley people do. All his minions. And they are minions — they’re all lesser than he is in some fashion, and they all look up to him. They’re typically younger. They laugh at his jokes. Sometimes when he apologizes for a joke, which is not very often, he’ll say that the people around him thought it was funny.
- usefulcat 2y agoThis is by far the most believable explanation I've heard.
- tzs 2y ago> [...] and then publicly takes extremely polarizing political action that half the voter base considers antithetical to their values. It's worse than that. A significant fraction of the half that doesn't consider his political actions antithetical to their values consider EVs antithetical to their values.
- aftbit 2y agohttps://archive.ph/oeBUY https://archive.ph/oeBUY
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- froggertoaster 2y agoIs this primarily because Elon has become an extremely divisive figure? Asking authentically. What other problems in the market might be causing this?
- MOARDONGZPLZ 2y agoMore competition in the US market perhaps? A number of my coworkers and friends have purchased new EVs over the past year and all but one of them went with a car other than Tesla. Mostly Polestars, one Lucid.
- jamalaramala 2y agoChinese EV makers are very popular in Europe and Asia.
- SEJeff 2y agoElon alienated the majority of the side of the political spectrum that actually can afford his vehicles. He then went on throughout Europe backing majority disliked right wing parties and utterly tanks his sales in Europe as well. This isn't really recoverable. If the board had a spine (they don't), they'd fire him and find a new CEO.
- noworriesnate 2y agoIs there evidence that left wingers tend to be more as affluent than right wingers? Genuinely asking.
- marcosdumay 2y agoYes. Highly educated people tend to the left, and education is highly correlated to income. But both correlations reverse after some level of wealth.
- evilduck 2y agoNot really anything dramatically lopsided, but potentially the opposite of their assertion: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/04/09/partisanship-by-family-income-home-ownership-union-membership-and-veteran-status/ https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/04/09/partisanship... I can't find a source right now but I think there's some lines to draw between jobs we consider "prestigious" and party affiliation but it's not the same line to draw with wealth, i.e. a professor is considered a more prestigious role than a plumber even though the plumber likely makes more.
- aftbit 2y ago>The US group, led by Elon Musk, delivered 336,681 cars in the first quarter, far fewer than the 390,000 forecast by analysts and the 387,000 it delivered in the same period last year. That's a 13% decline in sales. They delivered 3740 cars per day (assuming 90 days in quarter), instead of the 4300/day they delivered last year or the 4333/day they forecast.
- graycrow 2y agoThis is largely due to the Model Y refresh. March numbers are pretty strong, even in Europe. Not that I support his behavior, especially his position on Ukraine, but facts are facts.
- bryanlarsen 2y agoIf Tesla was production constrained, this would be significant. ~3 weeks less production in a quarter is a lot. However, Tesla is not production constrained. There is essentially no delivery backlog for the new Model Y; essentially everybody that wanted one got one. Being able to make more cars in the quarter wouldn't have significantly affected deliveries.
- _ea1k 2y agoDespite an upcharge, there was virtually no inventory and the regular priced versions won't launch until tomorrow (probably). Lots of people with orders weren't able to take delivery in March. Model Y was clearly supply constrained for the quarter.
- square_usual 2y agohttps://archive.ph/6tgod#selection-2179.0-2182.0 https://archive.ph/6tgod#selection-2179.0-2182.0
- piva00 2y agoI can't find the March numbers, care to share a source?
- gamblor956 2y agoThe facts are that Tesla sales dropped even more in Europe than they did in the U.S. even after the Model Y refresh hit local markets.
- m463 2y agoI think the older Model Ys with "normal" headlights were nicer looking, and they had turn signal and drive-select stalks.
- nanna 2y agoIn the 1920s or '30s Henry Ford stopped or at least slowed with the antisemitic bile that he was spewing in his newspaper The Dearborn Independent, which put Hitler's Mein Kampf to shame and earned him the only favourable American mention in Hitler's book, because it was impacting sales of his cars. The question is whether the same might be the case for Musk, but his wealth seems decoupled from his cars, so it's not going to happen.
- dzhiurgis 2y agoI'll remind only leftist media calls him nazi and he's been persecuted by "antifa" for at least a decade. If you fail to see there's massive amount of propaganda then I'm sorry for you.
- johnnyanmac 2y agoI see you subscribe to the "roman salute" huh? I guess my eyes are propoganda if we're in 1984 being told to not believe what we view. He never rebuked it and in fact doubled down with jokes. So I'll call a spade a spade unless something changes.
- dzhiurgis 2y agoHe actually did in Rogans podcast. But also, why should he rebuke ridiculous claims? And once again, he has been persecuted by antifa basically forever.
- CyberDildonics 2y agoTo be clear, when someone does a nazi salute twice at the world's biggest political rally and people call it a nazi salute, that is persecution? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1Zwiv8erk0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1Zwiv8erk0
- dzhiurgis 2y agoYes, it is persecution to single out something/someone with no context... At least you could focus on Trumps power grab. Instead you are regurgitating propaganda.
- spacedcowboy 2y ago[flagged]
- jlongr 2y agoEeek, someone is critical of my fascist idol!! Better censor them!!!!!
- bryanlarsen 2y agodo you expect productive, meaningful commentary? A Musk pile on is lots of fun (I've contributed today and enjoyed it), but I don't think we're going to learn anything from comments from either side.
- johnnyanmac 2y agoI learned Musk bros are going to flag even simple stock news these days. They must be desperate.
- simonsarris 2y agoNote that Rivian deliveries (numbers came out today also) fell much more, percentagewise. Also worth pondering the scale. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/02/rivian-reports-fall-in-first-quarter-deliveries.html https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/02/rivian-reports-fall-in-first... > Rivian reported a 36% decline in first-quarter deliveries on Wednesday, as the electric-vehicle maker grapples with weak demand, sending its shares down more than 2% at the open. > The company delivered 8,640 vehicles in the quarter ended March 31, down from 13,588 a year earlier. The deliveries, however, exceeded analysts’ average estimate of 8,200, according to Visible Alpha.
- neogodless 2y agoMeanwhile... > General Motors' sales rose 17% in the first quarter of 2025 > Electric vehicle sales nearly doubled in the quarter, rising 94% to 31,887, making GM the second-largest seller of electric vehicles in the U.S. behind Tesla. Of course GM still sells way fewer (EDIT: electric) cars than Tesla! (But the gap is closing.) > Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) today reported March 2025 U.S. sales of 231,335 vehicles, up 7.7 percent on a volume basis and up 11.8 percent on a daily selling rate (DSR) basis versus March 2024. > Sales of electrified vehicles for the first quarter totaled 288,796, up 39.6 percent on a volume basis and up 43.3 percent on a DSR basis representing 50.6 percent of total sales volume. (That includes hybrids, which they sell a lot of.)
- zfg 2y ago> Of course GM still sells way fewer cars than Tesla! GM sells more cars than Tesla, fewer EVs.
- neogodless 2y agoThanks, fixed!
- _ea1k 2y agoIt is a tough environment for selling $70k+ trucks and SUVs like that. As nice as they are, vehicles like the EV9 and Lightning aren't much worse and are much cheaper.
- josefritzishere 2y agoAt a normal company, as CEO, Elon's behavior and performance would get him removed the the board. I suspect it will eventually. He's on a real Howard Hughes trajectory for loss of sanity. It's kind of sad really.
- belter 2y agoThe board? You mean his childhood friend, his accountant, his brother, and his divorce lawyer? :-) "As Tesla tanks, Musk’s hand-picked board chair is doing just fine" - https://www.reuters.com/investigations/tesla-tanks-musks-hand-picked-board-chair-is-doing-just-fine-2025-03-17/ https://www.reuters.com/investigations/tesla-tanks-musks-han... "Elon Musk's Divorce Lawyer Is His General Counsel at Tesla" - https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/in-house/elon-musks-divorce-lawyer-is-his-gc-at-tesla/ https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/in-house/elon-musks-divor...
- johnnyanmac 2y agoWell even his family is pulling out: https://www.investors.com/news/tesla-stock-elon-musk-brother-unloads-key-juncture-after-recent-dive/ https://www.investors.com/news/tesla-stock-elon-musk-brother...
- _ea1k 2y agoI get why people think this, but the comments of the protestors make it clear that this wouldn't help. They'd keep going for as long as he's a shareholder, as the intent is to personally hurt his financial returns. Mere removal from the company doesn't change their stated objections.
- johnnyanmac 2y agoI think he's majority shareholder or something, so that's hard to do. I think we'll simply see more top investors start to cash out over the year so they can profit before they make any big statements.
- pzo 2y agoWhy this got flagged @dang ? On the other side it's weird that stock of tesla today are up ~5% even with this news.
- johnnyanmac 2y agoBeen speculated for a while there's, at best, some very proactive Tesla defenders trying to flag any bad news. And at worst someone who made bots to automate such a process. If you're stalking new, you only need a dozen or so flags to trip off the auto-flagging. Dang hasn't really commented anything supporting nor negating such a theory. The stock up probably comes more from rumors (nothing explicitly stated except offhand by trump) that Elon is stepping down as head of DOGE. translation: they are making use of some contract terms for Musk to GTFO for both their sakes.
- mizzao 2y agoI officially use https://news.ycombinator.com/active https://news.ycombinator.com/active as a bookmark now, which is the same as the front page except shows all the posts hidden by the flag squads.
- buyucu 2y agodang is famous for censoring anything even slightly critical of Musk and Tesla.
- sidibe 2y agoI don't think it's him just users flagging. But the leaders of YC are huge fanboys and live for his replies and retweets. It's pathetic and embarrassing