Tesla’s electric car sales are collapsing and its major rival BYD from China is failing completely

Tesla posted its first drop in deliveries since the coronavirus pandemic last quarter. The company, led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, said it delivered 386,810 of its electric cars to customers between January and March. In the same quarter last year there were almost 423,000.

Analysts on average had expected an increase to more than 449,000 deliveries for the first quarter of 2024. Tesla shares, already weak this year, temporarily fell more than five percent in early U.S. trading on Tuesday.

In recent months, Tesla had to temporarily halt production at Grünheide near Berlin due to component supply bottlenecks caused by ship diversions following attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea and an attack on the factory’s power supply. At the large factory in California, production was switched to a newer version of the bestseller Model 3.

Tesla built a total of 433,371 vehicles, the company announced on Tuesday. In the same quarter last year there were 440,808.

After Tesla’s deliveries have repeatedly increased significantly in recent years, doubts about the growth rate of the electric car market have increased recently. In the US, car buyers are increasingly opting for combustion and hybrid vehicles; In China, Tesla faces increased competition from domestic manufacturers such as BYD.

The Model 3 and Model Y compact SUV accounted for about 96 percent of deliveries. Tesla has not provided any figures for the new electric pickup ‘Cybertruck’, which has been sold in the US for several months.

Chinese rival BYD collapsed even more sharply than Telsa: from January to March BYD sold more than 300,000 electric cars. That was a decline of 43 percent compared to the record volume in the previous quarter. At the end of 2023, BYD overtook Tesla for the first time in a quarter and Tesla is now the market leader again despite declining sales.

(sda/awp/dpa)